Metroid: The Duron V Incident: A fan's revision of Metroid Other M
by Flintin Steel
Summary: Samus Aran: slayer of worlds and demon of Zebes responds to a distress beacon from a research station. Running into her former CO, the man she could have gone the rest of her life without seeing again, she struggles to unravel the mystery of the station while fending off monstrosities unleashed by an unknown entity bent on her violent, bloody demise. A rewrite turn original story.
1. Foreword: Reasons for Writing This

** Disclaimer  
This work of fiction is a non-profit, fan-based original story. While the plot and original characters are owned by the author, the setting, Samus Aran, and all other characters taken from Metroid are all owned by Nintendo Ltd. Pictures used are copyrights of their respective owners, support their official works.  
Please don't sue me, I'm worth nothing. Thank you.**

_For Sakamoto-san, who both created and destroyed a brilliant heroine. You gave me reason to write this story. Thanks for putting my pen in motion. _

Foreword  
I've been a huge Metroid fan since about 12 years old when I was first introduced to the series. For those of you who are uninitiated, Metroid is a series of 10 games published by Nintendo that centers on a lone heroine, assigned to exterminate creatures threatening all life in the galaxy.  
Now the first games I played were Metroid, Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime Hunters. After I finished those titles I expanded into the other entries in the series. I adored the atmosphere the games put me into, which I largely credit to the series brilliant music. I felt like I really was alone on planets where every creature wanted me dead.  
As I journeyed through volcanic lakes, artic ruins, jungle temples, sophisticated military bases, ship bridges and even the heart of a poisonous planet, I really got a feel for what kind of person Samus was. While her portrayal has been limited in older titles, the newer ones took advantage of new technology and really expanded her character. But what really sold on her was not what she said, heck, she seldom said anything, but her actions. Her actions were what defined her. If you think about it, Samus has good reason to be silent. On a regular basis, she is stranded on barren worlds with demonic creatures hiding around every corner, or sent in alone to exterminate entire ecosystems of horrific monsters. On top of that, her parents were brutally murdered in front of her. Taking all of that into account, I think it's easy to sympathize with her.  
In Metroid Prime 3, Samus was even more defined. The way people treated her made her stand out. For instance, four hunters, including Samus are recruited by Admiral Dane to investigate an information network crisis within the Galactic Federation. While the other three hunters are having pleasant conversation with the admiral, Space Pirates attack the ship. The admiral orders them to fend off the invaders, but Samus stays behind. With her, the admiral simply nods, implying "Samus, go do what you do best". When I saw this, I grinned. It was an awesome gesture of respect. And one that really gave me a glimpse to as how in-game characters view the heroine.  
Another theme in Prime 3 was the effective hell Samus was put through. A doppelganger of hers, Dark Samus, has returned. She corrupts Samus and the other three bounty hunters with Phazon, a highly mutagenic and toxic substance. After given special apparatuses to combat the internal corruption, the four hunters are assigned to continue their investigation regarding the network crisis. However, as Samus progresses on her mission, she discovers one by one the other hunters have given in to their corruption and have become pawns in Dark Samus' game of galactic conquest. Samus, while slowly succumbing to her own corruption, is forced to fight these three hunters she once called her friends. Later, right as the Phazon is about to totally corrupt her; Samus confronts Dark Samus at the heart of Phaaze, the source of all Phazon. Samus continues on despite the odds stack against her.  
What's compelling about this story, to me, is that it focuses on Samus' struggle repeatedly. She is shown puking up Phazon and toxic cracks begin to develop across her face. Despite her never saying a word, Samus has shown the player just how horrific her struggle is. Surely the thought crossed her mind, "My friends couldn't beat it, how can I? Shouldn't I just give up to the inevitable?" But she doesn't. She fights to the bitter end, and is rewarded for her struggle: Phazon is purged from her body and Dark Samus is destroyed forever. The galaxy is saved.  
A few years after Prime 3, a new game was published called, Metroid Other M. The premise of the game was to shed light on Samus' character, in addition to brutally and epically beating the crap out of monsters along the way. To see a new, sleekly armoured Samus headlock a 40 foot behemoth and blast it point blank with her gun was beyond awesome. It was be-awesome. And I was _freaking _out inside when I saw the trailers for it. Apparently the fan-base was too. We all, I think, wanted to see a story driven Metroid game with intense fighting action, since, well, that's never happened before. _"Metroid is explore, survive and shoot. What? We get to grapple with monster and kick the snot out of them now? Ridiculous! Shut up and take my money Nintendo!_  
Unfortunately, the game didn't meet our expectations, as you might have guessed. They rarely do these days. However, this went beyond disappointed fans. What happened negatively impacted the entire series. Mind you, the game itself wasn't that bad. In my opinion, despite its many flaws, I really enjoyed it. The fighting and shooting was intense and a blast to play, (no pun intended). And honestly, if Nintendo decided last minute to change the title to _Space Hunter Prime_ or something, I think it would have sold quite well. If they made it a standalone game unrelated to Metroid, I think it would have been better received. In reality though, the game massively flopped. The reason? It's horrific portrayal of Samus.  
I could do a long critique about this, (believe me I have, multiple times to many ears), but I won't. Enough people have done that already. (A particularly brilliant one can be found here: . )  
Bottom-line, the game painted Samus as a whiny, overly emotional, and pathetic character. Her obsession with her CO, Adam Malkovich, is strange considering she talks about him as if he's the best person who ever lived, but is in fact _especially_ cold and distant from everyone around him. Samus is portrayed in such a negative way that, number one, it's impossible to take her seriously, two, she contradicts her characterization in the rest of the series, and three, it's _freaking impossible _to take her seriously! _Simply put, its character assassination at its finest._  
For instance, she has a full-blown emotional breakdown when she's fighting Ridley. Mind you, Ridley killed her parents as she watched and he's an 80 foot tall giant dragon. If this was her first encounter with him, this would make sense. However it's not. This is the third or fourth time she's fought Ridley. In all logical honesty, this should not be happening. If this scene was a flashback, it'd make perfect sense. But it's not. She collapses on her knees in front of the thing and gets her friend killed (almost), because she couldn't cope with reality. One nail in the coffin is that all these cut scenes, despite how gorgeous they look, are _unskiable_. Meaning the story is shoved down your throat, whether you want it or not. Should a story be engaging enough that the player _wants _to see them, instead of insisting they _must_ see them? Like half-life 2, Halo Reach, StarCraft 1 & 2? But I digress. I said _no _rants didn't I?  
Anyway, after listening to probably every rant on YouTube about how demeaning this game was to Samus, I wanted to get some fresh input. I made my friends watch it. They thought the story was crap. A few hours after that, I got thinking. If I rewrote Other M to fit with the entire series, what would I change? How would I approach Samus' character differently than the volumes of fanfiction written about her? If I was going to do a Samus story, I wanted to make her unique and original.  
As you probably guessed, this book you hold was the result of such an endeavor. I wanted a story that could fit inside the Metroid universe without contradicting it. However, as I was writing it, I realized this story was similar to another, unrelated novella I was going to write later. In my option, a story should exist in its own right, as a story. Not some fan allegory for how terrible a certain game was. And considering my other novella wasn't really that creative after all, (honestly it was a lot like Other M) I decided to combine them. So in one sense, yes, this novella deviates drastically in plot, however, if you critically look at it, I'm sure it isn't.  
At my core, I wanted to put Samus in a story where she could be her own person and given the proper characterization I felt she deserved. I desired to put Samus into an original tale and see how she would deal with it. To my astonishment, she was brilliant. I adored writing Samus from beginning to end. My only regret is that I think my Samus is _too awesome. _ As in, I fear she may have become too much of a Mary Sue, (a character with no flaws) to be interesting to read. But I'll leave that up to you.  
Lastly, I want to say that my version of Samus may deviate tremendously from her portrayal in her games. For me, I wanted to write a flawed, more believable and frankly BAMF Samus that I always pictured her to be. She's always been my favorite female heroine and I wanted to give her freedom to be her own person, figuratively speaking, and I hope I accomplished that in here.  
The fruits of my labors, however flawed they may be, are as follows. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it and thanks so much!


	2. Prologue: An Accomplished Career

**Prologue**

The year is 2295 A.D and the person of the century is Samus Aran. Some consider the crowning moment of her career was the mission to Zebes, her _Zero Mission_ as some called it. A race of plunderus nomads called Vanaralians, (AKA Space Pirates), invaded Zebes and transformed it into a heavily fortified base of operations. Their leader, Mother Brain, used it as a staging area for a horrendous breeding project. Her plan was to unleash terrible parasitic life forms, known as Metroids, on the galaxy. Metroids, resembling floating jellyfish, killed their prey in the most gruesome of ways: they literally electrocuted their victims with their own body and sucked up the energy produced. In response to this, the Galactic Federations of Allied Planets launched a massive assault on the world. After suffering heavy losses, the operation was recalled and the Federation was left to consider alternative options.  
Time was running out for the federal galaxy, if they didn't act soon, the Metroids would murder billions. As a last, desperate resort, they called in Samus Aran, a bounty hunter and former federal commando known for completing impossible missions. She was sent to destroy the Vanaralian presence on Zebes and exterminate the Metroid threat. To do this, she was given a Fusion Bomb, a timed detonated explosive pack some 1000 times greater than the Atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki some 450 years prior. Samus fought her way into the heart of Zebes, killed every monstrosity and Metroid in sight, slew Mother Brain and blew the bomb. She was hailed as a galactic hero and received the Federal Medal of Supreme Honour. History would remember the incident as _The Fall of Zebes_.  
Two years later, the Federation discovered the homeworld of the Metroids, SR388. Deeming the creatures too dangerous to exist, commando teams were sent in to eradicate them. When the initial team failed to respond shorty after touchdown, another team was sent to retrieve them. When they failed to respond as well, Samus was summoned. Nothing less than total extinction of the Metroids was her objective. Something she accomplished by the mere skin of her teeth. Sort of.  
A lone infant Metroid hatched as she was leaving the planet and bonded to her as if she was its mother. Never having children of her own, she took piety on it.  
"Ironic isn't it?" she said to it, "I was the lone survivor of my people. Now so are you."  
She brought it aboard her ship. Realizing she could never tend an infant, she gave the creature away to Ceres science academy, a research colony.  
"What can you do with him?" she asked the researchers.  
"Let's find out!" They replied in delight.  
They took the Metroid and were astonished to discover its unique energy qualities could be used for the good of the galaxy.  
"Its name is M, not, the Metroid". She told them. Though in retrospect, it was hardly an improvement, Samus always wanted to name her son by an "M" name. Since she was terrible at naming things, she just stuck with M. To her, she wanted the infant to be more than just "a thing", she want to humanize it a little, even if it was by a stupid name.  
Satisfied with this turn of events, she left the creature in her care. However, not even ten minutes after her departure, she got a distress beacon. Ceres was under attack! She returned just in time to see the murderer of her people, a space dragon named Ridley, escape with M his clutches.  
She traced Ridley back to Zebes. Surprised to discover the entire planet had been converted into a rebult base by the Vanies. In a flurry of rage, she fought her way through the Pirate's defenses, past swarms of giant bugs, huge snakes, and lava dragons, into a resurrected Mother Brain's headquarters. Apparently, Mother wanted to clone M as part second attempt to unleash the Metroid on the galaxy. With godlike fury, she struck down Mother, only to see the great brain rise before her in a new body. Mother hit Samus with a strange beam laser, totally paralyzing her. Lying helplessly on the floor, Samus closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come as Mother closed in for the kill.  
Suddenly out of nowhere, M, now gigantic due to Pirate experimentation, attacked Mother who collapsed dead. The Super Metroid then latched onto Samus and, a twist of events, actually healed her with the power it absorbed. Mother however, wasn't as dead as she appeared. She rose up and shot M as it healed Samus. The Super Metroid exploded into tiny particles. These rained down on Samus and somehow granted her arm gun a tremendous boost in power. This "hyper beam" Samus gained temporarily was shot into Mother's mechanical body, causing excruciating amounts of pain, much of which gave Samus great delight. Justice was done. And she enjoyed every minute of rendering it. With Mother dead, the facility began to fall apart. Samus raced towards the surface and escaped with her life, right as the entire planet burst apart.  
For this, she received a second Federal Medal of Supreme Honor and spectacular admiration across federal space. Hardly compensation, though, for the loss of her little M.  
Sometime later, she searched for countless bounties. Criminals ran scared and organizations crumbled before her. The Pirates were gone; the Metroids were destroyed and Mother a mere footnote in history. The year was 2300, and the galaxy was at peace forever.  
It seems, however, that forever doesn't last long.  
Three months after Mother's death, Samus picked up a distress beacon from deep space. Following it to its source, she found Duron V, a research colony just outside the Yaets system near Earth.  
She licked her lips in delight.  
"There's hunting to be had."


	3. 1 An Unwelcomed Guest

**1.**

Samus Aran rose from the hatch on the top of her ship; the armoured woman scanned the immediate area. It was dark, foreboding, and poorly lit. Just the way she liked it. Had she been out of her suit, it probably would have felt chillingly cold. Like Zebes. The massive hanger bay of the Duron V looked big enough to fit three Federation corvettes inside it. Corvettes being patrol vessels 150 meters in length.  
There was an elevated ramp perhaps 15 meters in length directly in front of her ship leading to a hatch into another room. As she reached the top of the ramp, she got a good look at the only other ship docked in the hanger. She recognized the design. A Federation Army troop carrier and judging by the distinctive sky blue hull plating and the star symbol on the side, it was definitely in active service. Decommissioned military vessels were stripped of their Federation symbols and painted dark green.  
She pulled up her scan visor and analyzed the ship's engines. Still warm. Someone got her before her. Probably in response to that distress signal, probably Federal soldiers.  
_In that case, I'm sure they've got this handled. Maybe I can finally get that hot bath. _She thought to herself. Suddenly, the room shook and there was a great low pitched boom.  
_ …Or not._  
She ran through the hatch, through a hall and into a room where a squad of soldiers were crowded around some plated door. She threw herself into an aerial roll and landed with her arm gun leveled at them. She thought they would have noticed her after that leap, least have caught a glimpse of her a second or two later. They didn't even flinch. Were that that inept? Or she was a lot stealthier than she realized?  
_Sometimes I amaze even myself. _She thought as she stood from her crouched position.  
_Guess I'll let them know I'm here. _She shot a bolt into the blast door right past one of their heads. A spit second later, the whole squad jumped and posed their guns at her.  
She smiled under her green visor, "Evening gentlemen." She said. Her gun was still pointed at them.  
The soldiers gave each other uncertain looks. As if they couldn't tell if the warrior was hostile or friendly.  
A deep laugh filled the room. A big man brushed his way past the solders and retracted his helmet visor, revealing a dark skinned, and welcoming face. "Fancy meeting you here _princess_. Remember me?"  
"Can't forget an ugly mug like yours Anthony Higgs."  
The man chuckled "Same old Samus," Anthony turned to the cluster of men behind him, "Oh knock it off guys1 Don't you know who this is? This is _Samus Aran_, the biggest badass in the galaxy. You know, the lady who blew up a planet's worth of Vanies twice over?"  
The tense soldiers gave each other another nervous look and lowered the weapons.  
"Jeez, you guys are so uptight." Anthony muttered, "Oh and your buddy's here too." He gestured with his thumb to one of the soldiers at the back of the cluster. He had three silver and red badges on the side of his suit, indicating he was a high ranking officer.  
The officer stared right at her and demanded, "What are _you _doing here?"  
"Glad to see you to. I received a distress beacon just like you and decided to investigate."  
"That information is not for an outsider."  
_Wow. Well, I guess that's an improvement from what he used to call me. _  
One of the soldiers turned to Samus' "buddy". He announced, "Commander, charges armed."  
The cluster of men backed 20 feet away from the explosive pack placed at the center of the plated door and kneeled down. Anthony gestured for Samus to do the same; she shot him a sarcastic look.  
"Alright. Whatever." He said.  
The detpack soldier pulled a remote from his utility belt and pressed a button. The packs exploded into a screen of smoke, clogging the view of the door. When she smoke cleared, the door stood exactly the same it did a moment prior, albeit with a large scorch mark.  
The solider cursed, "Karkit, not even a dent?"  
Another asked him, "What's next?"  
"We could try a lasercutter to slice a way through. Problem take a while. An hour. Maybe two."  
Anthony turned to Samus, "The electrical system is out and most of these blast doors are sealed.  
Lyle over there tried using DX3 packs but,"  
Samus laughed, "Yeah, I felt that when I walked in."  
"Heheh, yeah. But you know, tricky without causing collateral damage. What we need…" he raised an eyebrow and smiled, "is someone to way to send an electrical current into it."  
Samus smirked. "Better idea."  
She pressed a button on her arm cannon. A moment later, the barrel flipped open into four prongs and a target sight appeared over her right eye on her visor. "Stand back."  
A blue-trailed missile lanced out of her gun, slammed into into the door and shook the whole room, shattering the door into molten pieces. Down the now open hall was a foreboding corridor.  
Lyle's jaw dropped. Antony snickered. Two others looked at each other, one muttered, "Holy crap…"  
Samus raised her hands gave Adam a smug look. A sort of "Yeah I just did that" look.  
Adam rolled his eyes and ordered his squad to proceed down the corridor. The cluster of men turned on their gun's tactical flashlights and complied.  
Anthony adjusted his backpack and engaged his visor "I'm gonna go on ahead. Nice seeing ya again Princess."  
Leaving Adam and Samus alone in the room.  
"Do I hear a _thank you Samus_?" She asked.  
Adam scowled at her and chased after his squad.  
"Typical."


	4. 2 Bugs, lots of bugs

**2.**

About an half an hour of exploring the decrepit Duron V and killing a swarm of Reos, flying insects she encountered on Zebes three months ago, she met up with the squad of soldiers. They were in a spacious warehouse like room gathered around the mattered body of a lab worker. The remains of the body were covered in patches of green saliva. There was hole in its back, stretching the length of his spine, like something cut him open.  
"What attacked him?" One of the soldiers asked.  
"Clearly not human."  
The body abruptly shook and the whole squad jumped. A purple bug about the size of a man's head crawled out from underneath the body. It scurried about the floor. One of the soldiers yelled, "GET AWAY FROM ME!" He drop kicked the insect multiple times until it was reduced to a puddle of green blood.  
Samus looked around the room. _My suspicions were right. There's more going on here than what is seen. Something pervasive. Something… menacing. Just the way I like it. What does Adam know that he's not telling me? I'm glad I stayed.  
"_Adam, look, in the interest of both your men and the-"  
"Good night…they're coming out of the walls!" Lyle said as he pointed to thousands of purple bugs now amassing on the ceiling around a large beetle with an eye on its shell. The bugs seemingly fused into one large mass and dropped to the floor in front of the squad. The creature continued to grow as two tentacles arms formed. She didn't need a reason. Samus let loose a barrage of beam shots into the creature's side.  
"OPEN FIRE!" Adam ordered. The mass howled in pain as it absorbed punishing barrages from both the humans. It raised an arm and swung at Samus. She dodged and fired a charged shot at its arm. Dozens of individual bugs flew from the creature's side on impact. A few seconds later, the mass began to reform, as if no damage had been done.  
The creature roared and swung Lyle into the wall.  
"Man down!" Anthony yelled, "Covering fire!"  
The soldiers moved toward their fallen ally and formed a perimeter around him. One of them picked Lyle up and carried him into the corner of the room. The creature noticed this and raised both arms up to smash the entire platoon.  
_No you don't.  
_Samus switched weapons and shot the creature right in its one eye with a charged ice beam, freezing its body and arms in place. She then shot a missile at it, shattering the frozen parts to pieces.  
The mass roared once again and began to reform itself, but much slower than before.  
"Switch to freeze guns!" Adam ordered, "We'll freeze it, you blow it to pieces."  
The soldiers holstered their rifles on their backs and pulled out white pistols with blue tubes for magazines. The creature began to slow as the shard-like bolts impacted its hide. It took another swing at Samus, but she leapt out of the way once more and hit it with another charged ice beam. Its entire arm frozen to the ground, she fired another missile at the mass. The creature reeled from the attack, but this time, its arms didn't grow back. The soldiers targeted its lower body and Samus delivered another blow.  
At that moment, the Eye-Beetle creature was flung from the mass onto the floor where it squirmed around helplessly on its back, unable to flip itself. Samus dashed over to it, grabbed the thing in a headlock and smashed her arm cannon through its carapace. The beetle screeched in pain and fell dead on the floor when she pulled her arm out of it.  
It felt good to kill something again. She hadn't done that in three months.  
"Is everyone alright?" Anthony called out.  
"I'm fine, but did it _have_ to be bugs?" Lyle retorted.  
The squad medic was addressing the Lyle's injuries when Adam walked over to Samus. He retracted his visor.  
"Samus, it looks like I'm going to have to ask for your cooperation on this mission." He said in a monotone voice, "but, I'm also going to ask that you follow my commands. You don't move until I say so, and you don't fire until I say so."  
"No, that's not how this is going to work Adam. If you want me here, you'll pay my standard fee _and_ I get full usage of _all _my own weapons. They were entrusted to me by the Chozo for my use only. You have no idea what these things are capable. I am the expert on my own arsenal here. Just like Lyle is the expert on explosives."  
"I'm afraid I cannot al-"  
"You have two choices: You hire me, I obey your orders and you can monitor me at all times or I stay regardless and do whatever I feel necessary to discover what's going on here. You know full what a bounty hunter with my, unique qualifications, can do to this place. Who knows. Maybe I'll blow a hole in the side of the hull if I'm not careful."  
"Enough!" Adam shouted. It felt so good to make him angry, "Alright, we'll do things your way. It's 10,000 Federation Standard Credits right?" 10,000 FSC was 1/3 the entire Federation made from taxes in one year.  
"30,000 FSC. After killing a planet of Vanaralian Space Pirates a second time, I figured my services should be a bit more expensive."  
Adam grumbled, "That's triple what we paid you to eradicate the Pirates on Zebes the first time." He sighed. "Fine. 30,000 it is. I can't believe I've forgotten how _stubborn _you are.  
"Alright men listen up. Samus is now part of our operation…" he grumbled again, "whether we like it or not.  
"Now then. Exactly what transpired here on _Duron V_ is still uncertain. Here's what we do know: the equipment we thought torched is operational again, and we've seen casualties attributed to unidentified vicious creatures. The situation is critical. While we'll need to gather all information we can, priority one is to find any survivors and bring them to safety. Consider this site extremely dangerous. Be careful as you make your sweeps.  
Here's one problem. The wireless interference in this facility is all-pervasive. Your comm systems are useless. As a result, communication channels will be limited to the facility's navigation booths. As far as objectives are concerned you will be split up into two groups. Higgs, Favreau and Pierce, you investigate Sector One and repair any equipment you find. Misawa, Jordi and Krebs, you are to investigate the Residential Quarters. Run a complete sweep and investigate any trace of survivors. And Lyle,"  
"Yeah?"  
"Show a little restraint with the explosives for pity's sake."  
He sighed, "Yes sir."  
"Do not hesitate to use your freeze guns. I know they're new equipment and not efficient like a service rifle is, but they might be your best chance of survival. Do not neglect regular check ins via the nav booths. Samus, you go to the System Management room. Do everything possible ro get the electrical system back up. Then link up with Sgt. Higgs in Sector 1. Fortunately, your com system is still functional. Remember, everything you see will also appear on that screen up there," he pointed to a control center that over looked the warehouse area. "I'll be in there directing each of you. Again, be cautious. A live soldier is more important to me than a dead hero. That clear 7th Platoon?"  
The squad roared a reply and gave Adam a thumbs up. "Yes sir!"  
"Dismissed."  
The platoon checked their gear, reloaded their weapons and split up, half of them going out the door on the right and the other half the door on the left.  
_It's been a while since I did a joint mission with the federation. The last time was that business with the Aurora Units and Dark Samus a few years back. _  
Adam turned to Samus, "Any more objections, Lady?"  
"Not 'till you screw up. Have fun." She turned and left the room.


	5. 3 Any Objections Lady?

_**3.**_

_Any objections lady? _ Had it really been that long since he last said that? Couse, it had been years since she last seen him. Shortly before the Fall of Zebes, Samus was among the most elite of the Federal Special Operations Brigade as a Commando. She was under the command of Adam Malkovich, who was a Major at the time. The guy was given the affectionate title "Major Hardass". He was stern and focused during his briefings. Normally not one to joke, he made an exception for a fresh recruit and one of the few females to join the Spec Ops Brigade.  
Samus was notorious for disobeying orders and objecting to mission briefings. Unlike the other commandos who took briefings in without question of content, Samus interjected when "necessary", making her the butt of many jokes. While her transition into service was rough, she adapted. Adam even tried making the shift easier. Whenever she spoke out during a briefing regarding tactical preference, he'd reply, "Any more objections lady?" That'd shut her up.  
At first she resented him for this. But when she realized he was showing it wasn't her place to speak out, she thanked him for it. After several months, Adam lightened up more and began to end briefings with the question. Though she no longer challenged his orders, it was still funny to the rest of the squad. Whenever Adam would ask the question, she'd playfully give him thumbs down to make fun of her earlier rebelliousness. _It became common for us to take shots at each other. I think the laughs were welcomed. We were assigned missions into hell. We needed to lighten up while we could. _  
_I found out Adam had a troubled past on par with my own. Which probably explained why we got along so well. Adam became my personal confident, like a father. We shared intimate things with each other. He had commanded disastrous missions and led hundreds of men to their deaths during his early days of leadership. Mistakes he'd never forgiven himself for. Just like I've never forgiven myself for allowing my parents to… _  
When Samus reached the System Management room she discovered the computer console shattered to pieces. After spending half an hour rewiring and soldering the console with her plasma beam, she finally got the emergency power up. When the lights in the dark room came on, she discovered why the power was off in the first place. Some Reos had made two nests on the generator just beyond the console. When Samus reactivated the generator, an electrical current shocked the nest and sent Reos out into a fury. She pumped one of the hives full of missiles 'til it exploded to pieces, then two Reos came flying at her head and knocked her onto the floor.  
_Karkit! Pay attention Samus. Don't get rusty now._  
She blasted her attackers as they came in for another swoop. Aiming for the other hive, she put five missiles into that one too.  
"Adam, this is Samus, I've got the power back online."  
"Excellent. Change of plans. Higgs, Favreau and Pierce went ahead to secure a facility of interest. I'll leave surveying Sector One to you."  
"Copy that."  
_I've had much too much time by myself since Zebes blew, I've got to stay focused on the present. Not trailing off on the past. _


	6. 4 Vacationing in the Biosphere

**4**.

The elevator chamber consisted of a triad pillar of three doors, like different sides of a triangle. One door green with a #1 on it leading to the Biosphere, another white with a #2 on with leading to the Cryosphere and lastly a blue door with a #3 leading to the Aquasphere. She rounded the pillar to the door with the #1 above it. On her way down a chipper electronic voice announced,  
"This Elevator is bound for, _Sector One, _a level _Five_ warning is now in effect for, _Sector One_. This area is extremely dangerous. Please stay in groups and remain armed at all times. Do not attempt to travel alone."  
_Oh no! I'm all alone! I'm certainly doomed…heh heh! Just the way I like it_.  
The first chamber exiting the elevator she entered was a jungle. There was a holopanel to her left, _Let's find out what I get to kill. _ The panel read, _BIOSPHERE: ARTIFICAIL ENCLOSERE HOUSING OVER 1000 DIFFERENT SPECIES. EACH ROOM IS SPECIFICALLY MADE TO REPLICATE A DIFFERENT BIOGROUPS'NATURAL HABITAT._  
_So I get _lots_ of things to kill. Delicious._  
She examined every nook and room she encountered in the following hour. What was so striking about Sector One was the level of detail the architects put into creating it. Incredibly realistic. Often times, she entered a room where instead of seeing the metal ceiling of the enclosure, she saw instead the sky of a world the room was imitating. No doubt about it, the flowers, the alien trees and the moist artificial breeze she felt when she opened her suit vents was dazzling.  
_I'd swear I'm actually on another planet, if I didn't know better. _ _Some of these rooms remind me of SR388 and Tallon IV. It's quite lovely, if I wasn't surrounded by 1000 different things trying to kill me, I might've taken my fourth vacation here. _  
A hologram projector was present in most of the rooms. These were responsible for the artificial backgrounds she saw. In areas that drew close to the enclosure walls, an image of an endless landscape was projected.  
If she didn't get enough of Reos on Zebes and in System Management before, she'd definitely got it here. There were hives _everywhere_.  
_Glad to have the Seeker Missiles I got from Aether all those years ago._  
And then there were the bloody Zoomers. As if the Reos weren't bad enough.  
There was no pride or skill in killing a Zoomer, Waver or Reo for the thousandth time. Though, something about them seemed different. Each creature she encountered, though near identical to the ones she slew on Zebes, seemed more brutal. They were push overs, yes, but these Duron V versions attacked her with a viciousness she'd seldom seen before.  
_Or am I just getting old? _ She joked.  
Her travels in and out of the habitats eventually brought her to a gaunt cage-like booth. By the looks of it, it seemed like something had been raised in it. Something not very large. Perhaps the size of an Earth Lion or a Dachora. In one corner was a researcher's corpse. This one hadn't sustained the same injuries as the other one, that one been torn apart by that Bug Mass. This one had been attacked by a different creature. As she moved to leave, she felt something strange in the air. A dark presence, like something was watching her.  
As she left the breeding room and into another enclosure, she noticed ruffling of bushes. Expecting a creature to jump out and attack her, she was surprised to see a harmless one instead. An adorable fuzzy white critter the size of a cat tackled a large fruit sitting on the jungle floor. It looked up at her and scurried off. She smirked.  
""Samus, head to the Biosphere Testing Zone. There might important Intel in the exam center there. Higgs, Favreau and Pierce are en route. Meet them."  
"Wilco." She headed towards the door behind her, then stopped short. A light went on in her head. _Could that thing have…  
_She turned back where the fuzzy was standing a moment ago. It was long gone.  
_Well, if it was the thing that attacked that researcher, no way getting it back now. Something will kill it. I'm sure. A thing that small in a place like this won't last long.  
_ 15 minutes later, she reached the exam center and took the first elevator she saw to the top. She went down a hall, took a left, to a flight of stairs. At the top, she was startled to find the hatch to the observation deck stuck open. She pressed a button on her arm cannon, switching it to her Ice Beam and cautiously entered the room.  
_Who got here before me?  
_She rounded the corner and noticed Sgt. Pierce working on the wiring for one of the computer consoles.  
"Hey Samus." he greeted.  
Clanking footsteps echoed from the doorway around the corner of the wall. Maurice and Anthony appeared a moment later and lowered their guns when they saw Samus and James.  
Maurice walked over to the console, "Karkit. The CPU seems to have self-destructed... The central system is broken into parts, but... I think I might be able to restore it and recover some of the data. I'll try it."  
"While Maurice works his magic, why don't we search the building? Maybe there's something-Hold on. Princess," Anthony motioned towards the window. Outside was a huge expansive field with mock barriers, practice dummies and black craters. "Does this view bring back memories? Yeah... Looks exactly like the Fed training grounds on Cascade II. The ones we drilled on."  
Samus nodded.  
"Anyways, I'm gonna go link up with the others."  
She took another glance at the field. _Who'd want to replicate that?_


	7. 5 Pirates, Plots and the Trail to Sec 2

**5.**

"Adam, are you seeing this?"  
Samus was exploring the exam center along with the others when she heard a high-pitched beeping. She followed it into a hexagon shaped storage room with six closets on each side. The beeping led her to a presumably empty closet, but when she opened the door, a familiar metal figure fell out. Samus had called Adam when she found it.  
"Yeah." Adam replied.  
"It's a Vanie, but cybernetically enhanced."_  
No matter how many times I kill you demons you keep coming back to haunt me. You killed my parents.I hate you for that. I loathe you for that. I'll hunt you forever for that. Do you hear me? Forever. Not even the pits of hell can save you from my fury. I will look for you, I will find you and I will slaughter you._  
" Do you know what this is?" She asked Adam.  
"Negative. Continue your investigation."  
On a loud speaker Maurice spoke, "Everyone, gather 'round!"  
Samus nodded and met the others returned to the observation room, where Maurice was still busy typing on the console  
"All right. So I managed a few bits of data relevant to us... 'Duron V is under the management of the Galactic Federation… In these facilities, life-forms from 30 planets have been raised and researched in use as possible bioweapons… Site Manager and Development Director: Dr. Madeline G. Bergman."  
"That's illegal."  
"As illegal as killing a Senator. Adam, was the Federation constructing bio-weapons here?"  
"Seems like it. But let's gather more intel before we make any conclusions. What about survivors?"  
Samus relayed the information to Maurice.  
"Tell Adam I've got nothing. This is all I can coax out of this thing."  
_Bi-weaps. Why would the Feds do this? Isn't their considerable military enough to keep Federal space in check? Or were they expecting an insurrection? Like what happened on Crescal III? Whatever it was, it was a stupid idea. Hadn't they learned from Zebes how self-destructive bi-weaps are? I've seen entire planets devastated by hive viruses and mutant beasts. Why would the Feds be so stupid to think their pet project could work where all others failed?_  
She needed answers, "Adam, do you know who Madeline Bergman is?'  
"Your guess is as good as mine. Anything else?"  
"I've almost gotten it completely restored," Maurice declared. "But I'll bet they've protected this thing with heavy encryption. If I can't get past it, Pierce, that'll be where you come in.  
"Leave it to me. Shouldn't be a problem. Might take a while though."  
"I'm gonna keep looking around, "declared Anthony, "Madeline might be in here."  
"I'll meet up with you in a minute." _I want to check out that cyber pirate again.  
_She made her way back into the hexagon storage room, back where the pirate was. Suddenly, a laser bolt shot out from the ceiling and impacted inches from her foot. She spun around to the ceiling where four cyber pirates were crawling on. Two of them remained on the ceiling and shot purple bolts at her from their gun claws; the other two leapt down and lunged at her with their metal talons. She grabbed one of the incoming talons and flung the Pirate into the other oncoming attacker. She armed a missile and was about to loose it when the hatch behind her opened. Anthony, Maurice and James were standing there.  
"Back off! This is my fight!" she called out to the three soldiers as she sealed the door. _No one is dying but you four.  
_ Adam's voice spoke on the loud speakers, "Men, evacuate the exam center. Let the woman handle it."  
"Die hunter!" one on the ceiling screeched as he landed a bolt on her chest. She was flung against the wall. Taking advantage of the opening the other made, one Pirate flung against her while anther ran to impale Samus with his claw. She dodged just in time, avoiding the attack by an inch, and watched as the pirate impaled its claw into the wall. She crouched down and transformed into a metal ball, one of her armour abilities, rolling right under the attacker with its claw stuck.  
_Power bombs? Too easy. I want to enjoy this._  
One of the pirates leap to grab her, while another from the ceiling jumped down to do the same. She flipped out of her ball form and landed a spinning kick on one of the attackers. On her knees now, she ducked as a steel claw swung right over her head. She punched the pirate with her gun, flinging him into a wall. This time, it wouldn't recover: She loosed two missiles, blowing it to bits.  
One roared a battle cry and the three survivors shot at her all at once. She managed to avoid two of the bolts, but the third nailed her left shoulder. Samus' armour operated on an energy shield system. The shielding absorbed 99.9% of incoming damage, but lost power as a result. At this point, from the two bolts that hit her, she had lost two of her seven tanks.  
_Funs over. Now I'm mad._  
Samus fired an ice bolt at one Pirate's gun, freezing it whole. The other pulled out a grenade from its utility belt and chucked it at the hunter. Samus kicked the grenade right back at the Pirate, sending it right into its face, exploding on contact, incinerating him instantly. The surviving Pirate swung its frozen weapon like a giant club at her.  
_Too slow._  
She evaded the attack and punched the thing in the gut. She stepped, grabbed the Pirate by the throat and slammed it into the floor, making a crater.  
"Start talking!" she screamed, "Why are you Pirates still alive? I murdered you when Zebes blew up!"  
The broken creature, still held by the neck chuckled, "Samus Aran," it whispered in a hiss-growl, "the bane of the Vanaralian Race. You've fought us for years and yet," it coughed up a mix of black oil and green blood on her visor, "there's still so much you don't know…about us."  
She picked up the Pirate and crashed him into the wall, she was sure she heard bones crack. Now pinning the miserable creature with her arm cannon, she wiped her visor clean with her left hand.  
"I can make you die five times worse than a quick missile. I know eight different ways to kill you. Six of them involve me ripping your beating heart out from your chest. Start. Talking."  
The creature cringed under the new pressure she was applying to his throat. She could tell, it was hard for him to breathe. "W-we were POWs after you blew up…Z-Zebes. And…And, we thought the Fedies would execute some of-of us after we told them everything we knew. GAH! W-we were critically wounded because of y-you! For once in… our lives, we longed for a quick painless d-death-we thought we-we- would get it. W-were wrong. They, took us to this. AGH! THIS PLACE, and," he coughed up more blood, "and they…turned us into Cyborgs. They implanted chips in our heads to make us as loyal as …dogs. We were going. Going to be secret military units when…when _he_ appeared and…anddddd.." his head went limp.  
"Who appeared? WHO DID?"  
She shook the Pirate like a ragdoll but it was clear he was already dead. She cursed and flung him into the ceiling. She karked the Pirates to hell and punched a hole in the metal wall.  
She took a deep breath and regained her composure. _I'll find out. Mark my words I'll find out._  
When Samus returned to the observation deck, she heard a commotion outside. The three soldiers were engaged with a four legged monster with the face only a mother could love. They overwhelmed. She punched a hole in the glass window and leapt out to land on the creature.  
Suddenly the dumb animal glanced up at her and jumped aside. Samus landed with an earth shattering smash on the ground where she was met with a blinding tail swing. She hit the ground hard. The creature leapt on top of her and pinned her with its massive claws. It screeched, like it was calling for help, then and five monsters shot out of the ground to attack Anthony, Maurice and James. With no distractions, the creature then stabbed at Samus's head with its tail. She leaned to the left causing the dagger like tail to graze the side of her helmet instead of stabbing a lethal blow to her head.  
_Half a tank gone, 4.5 left._  
The creature pulled back its tail and tried stabbing again. This time she fired a missile at its tail, negating the attack. She followed up with a plasma beam shot to its face, causing the thing to scream with pain and loosen its grip long enough for her to curl into her morph ball and break free.  
She managed to land two more plasma bolts when the thing decided to change tactics. Wounded, it made for James, who was distracted by the burrowing creatures. Right as the monster leapt into the air to tackle him, a huge white beam stuck the thing in the chest and sent it plummeting into the ground. Flopping on the ground like its heart was just ripped out, it got up and ran towards one of the holographic walls. Samus put another plasma blast into it as it burrowed through the wall into another room.  
"You okay, James?"  
"Yeah…thanks Higgs."  
"What about you Princess?"  
She nodded.  
"I would have shot that thing off of you right away with my baby here," holding a large underhanded cannon connected to his backpack, "but those bugs had me distracted. I'm just glad I got to hit the dang thing before it got James."  
"Me too. You know, it _was_ my kill_-"_  
"Girl, don't ruin the moment." Antony interjected, "We all know who you are. Don't rub it in."  
Samus punched Anthony in the arm.  
"Guys, look at this." James said, Maurice standing alongside him. The two walked over to the object in question. It was the remains of that fuzzy Samus saw earlier. She picked it up. The back of its head looked split open from the inside, as if something crawled out of it.  
"An empty shell." James said. Samus felt that cold, dark presence again.  
"Samus I've tracked that mystery monster a moment ago heading for Sector 2. Follow it."  
She jumped into the hole in the wall the creature made. It led to a long corridor with a pitfall at the end of it. A very long pitfall.  
_Sure I could wall jump down, but where's the fun in that?  
_She soared down the pit and slammed into the now shattered metal flooring. The walls were clawed up and covered in the monster's green blood. It definitely went through here.  
_Bioweapons. I wonder if Adam knew what was going on here before he arrived. As in, what if he and his team came her to extract the bioweapons that got loose. Or perhaps kill them to cover their existence up. If he did, he'd be in an awkward position with me breathing down his neck. Whatever the case is, I need to find Bergman. And soon. I'd rather not find her body wishing I had hurried when I didn't.  
_Suddenly, she felt the whole room shake. "Karkit! Samus, the Exam center just exploded."  
"What? Now? Should I investigate?"  
"Don't bother. I doubt you'd find anything left over. Continue with your current objective. Out."  
That was odd. If Adam is hiding something, I'm gonna make him wish he was never born.


	8. 6 Ice, Ice Everywhere

**7.**

Sector 2. Total ice everywhere. There were rooms designed to resemble frozen caves, snow covered plains and artic lakes. It reminded her of Phendrana on Tallon IV, only, uglier. She followed the creature's tracks and spilled blood for an hour before they suddenly disappeared when they lead inside some great cold catacombs. She didn't want to admit it, but that thing managed to lose her. She was pretty angry about that. Though, she was a better fighter and marksman than a prey tracker. She preferred surprising her prey, or in the least, luring them to her. This long distance tracking with only tracks to pursue wasn't very fun. _Did it have to be though? There were lives on the line here, it doesn't matter if it's fun or not._ She reminded herself.  
Fortunately, she found a maintenance room where she could repair her suit and recharge her shields. Seven full tanks felt good.  
The killing in Sector 2 was underwhelming to say the least. Back on Tallon IV, she fought a rock monster and giant artic predators. Here, the most she fought were artic Zoomers and a pack of alien wolves. Those were fun, while they lasted. And they didn't last long.  
An hour of exploring later and she had found nothing. From the map she noticed on the side of a wall, she knew she was reaching the end of the Cryosphere. Samus reported in, "Adam, I've nearly finished surveying Sector 2. Nothing here but snow, ice and more things trying to kill me."  
"As per usual?"  
"As per usual. I've lost that monster's trail. That thing is harder to find than a parasite in a star cruiser. Have you seen it from your end?"  
"Negative. If I see anything you'll be the first to know. Report when you finish your sweep."  
"Copy. Out."

Adam sighed to himself. From the way things were looking, it seems like there wouldn't be any survivors to find. And in that case, the Federation would be better off decommissioning this place, after taking all this damage into consideration. _Real shame, about 100,000 worth of FSC gone to waste._  
Just then Krebs chimed in, "Commander, we've got the names of ever resident recorded on the station since four ago as you requested." He reported. He along with Lyle Smithsonian, Alex Jordi and K.G Misawa had finished their search of the residential quarters and had moved on to the Control Bridge.  
"Good. Did you find any information on Dr. Bergman?"  
"Yes sir, but this is what puzzles me. It says here she was never program director for the bioweapons project. In fact she was never director for anything here."  
"Never the director? Then who was?"  
"One Fredrik Reinhardt, PhD in marine biology and life sciences at the University of Daiban, 2283. It says here he was tasked with evaluating new specimen arrivals to as whether they'd survive genetic manipulation. Until four days ago that is, when he stopped recording daily research logs."  
"That's probably when this whole mess happened. Look for those logs; they might lead us closer to some answers."  
"I'm looking them over now…oh wow. Here's something. One of his last logs mentioned an organism with "unlimited physic potential"."  
"Physic potential?"  
"Yeah. As in psychokinesis. Apparently this _Specimen #301_ had demonstrated various levels of telepathy, telekinesis and limited forms of mental persuasion."  
" Persuasion eh?"  
"Yeah. Reinhardt noted #301's abilities increased with time as it aged. All of its abilities started weak, but manifested themselves in more potent forms. He hypothesized that, given a few months, 301 might begin displaying early stages of mind control, strong enough to command an army of mutants."  
"…that's disturbing. "  
"Fortunately for us sir, #301 was scheduled for termination a week prior to this last log. It was right after an incident where it tried to murder a lab researcher."  
"Krebs, get me all information you can get me regarding this 301. Tell the others to do the same."  
"You got it sir. Hey Misawa! We need to start. Hey, what are you doing with-" three gunshots interrupted him.  
"Krebs! Krebs! Can you hear me? Krebs! Anyone! What the heck is going on?"  
"Com-mandd…er, K.G. He's gone craz…Agghgh…"  
Over the comm was the distant voice of Jordi screaming a curse at Misawa right before another two gunshots rang out. Adam leaned closer to the comm speaker. He heard Misawa say something. "Exterminated like the plague you are." There was something different about his voice though. Normally, K.G was positive and relaxed. You could tell it in the way he talked. This time, his voice sounded monotone and forced, as if reading a script.  
Adam waited until he heard, K.G leave the room then called out to three men lying probably dead in the room. "Hello. Can anyone here me? Smithsonian! Krebs! Jordi! Anyone still alive."  
A voice whisper a reply. "Yes. Be quiet."  
"Lyle?"  
"Yes it's me. I was in the other room when I heard gunfire. I ran inside and found Le Forge near dead. He told me what happened before he…"  
"I know. Right now I want you to do whatever you can to stay alive. Misawa probably looking for you too. Can you sneak back here? Two of us together are stronger than each of us alone."  
"I can. I'll get there as fast as I can."  
"Lyle. I don't want to report to Grace and the children their fatherless."  
"…Neither do I. Out."  
He had to call Samus. Adam cursed. He couldn't get her. He tried Anthony and his group. No response. He tried Lyle again, still nothing.  
"Karkit! This is the worst possible time to lose my team, my ace no less."


	9. 7 Maricia and the Ferrocrusher

**7.**

_Who is that? _Samus asked herself. She had searching Sector Two and was on her way out when she noticed a woman staring at her from an observation window.  
_A survivor. At last! _  
When the young, blond haired woman saw Samus, she seemed to panic and ran out of the room. Samus considered smashing her way through the window but then again, she didn't want to frighten her any more than she likely was. She went through the hatch way to her right and walked up a flight of stairs to the exact spot where the girl stood only moments ago. She followed the winding observation building corridor into what looked like a storage warehouse. There were heavy cargo and ship containers piled up like building blocks in a winding maze. She heard frantic footsteps close by. She rounded a corner of the cargo maze and caught a glimpse of the girl's lab coat as she ran off. Samus rounded another corner and found the girl by a hatch way into another room. The door was locked and she was desperately trying to open it.  
"Stay away!" The girl called as she brandished a freeze gun from her lab coat. "I'll shoot you! don't move!"  
Samus raised her hands in the air, "Okay. I won't. I'm not her to hurt you. I'm Samus Aran and I'm working with a Federation Platoon assigned to rescue survivors."  
In a derogatory tone the girl stated, "Don't lie to me _Hannibal. _I'm sure you've got this hunter under your control right now. I'm not going to give you a chance to have her end me."  
"Wait. Who's Hanniba-" the girl shot off a round from her gun taking Samus by surprise and hitting her right in the leg, causing her to crouch down on her right knee.  
"Please stop. I'm not working for-"  
She shot and froze her right foot solid this time.  
_I'm not playing this game. _Samus shot the gun out of her hands and pointed her cannon at her head. "Don't. Move. Listen to me. I'm carrying the most dangerous weapons in the galaxy. If I wanted you dead, would I have tried to talk first? I could have killed you long before you got to that door behind you."  
The girl was still visibly shaken, but after considering the hunter's words, she seemed to calm down. "You make a good point," She stretched out her hand to shake Samus's, "I'm Maricia Alice. The daughter of the Station Director, Michael Alice."  
Samus rose from crouching and broke the ice off her body. Freeze guns were still technically experimentals and were nowhere near potent as her own Chozo Ice Beam. Neither were these weapons effective at stopping heavily shielded foes like her. A freeze pistol really could only hold her for seconds when it would normally kill a person in moments.  
The space warrior returned the gesture, "Samus Aran. Have you heard of me?"  
"Uh, no. Should I have?"  
_Typical. _ She thought.  
"Nevermind. You said you're the daughter of the Station Director?"  
"Correct. And let me tell you there's a lot more going on than I'm sure your aware of."  
"More than Federation approved biological weapons?"  
"Oh way more. First of all, the Federation had nothing to do with making animals into military tools. This facility was designed as a wildlife preserve for creatures going extinct on their own worlds. And-"  
She was interrupted by the roar of heavy machinery filling the room and a spot light shined upon her. There was some mechanical unit behind the cargo crates just to the right of the door hatch. Samus yelled for Marica to get behind her. A house sized container was sent flying at Maricia, "LOOK OUT," Samus screamed. She managed to land a missile on the incoming cargo container right as it was about to crush the girl, reducing it to a husk of twisted metal flying into the wall.  
Now standing behind the seven foot tall Samus, Maricia was ordered to flee the room.  
"But I need to tell you-"  
"NOW! You can tell me later!"  
The machine cleared away the containers surrounding it with its two huge lifting arms, picking one of them up and chucking it at Samus. She fired a missile at the container, this time sending the wreckage straight back into the machine lifter. Temporarily stunning it, Samus took a quick scan of it.  
The visor scan read: "_Industrial Vehicle: R&B 176 "Ferrocrusher". A manually operated heavy loading and construction unit, the Reidrik and Berk-176 gained popularity …blah blah blah... It features two heavy load lifter arms and retractable electrical sweeper units. While modified versions of the RB176 exist, the vanilla model was never designed for combat as evidenced by a lack of plating around the arm joints and the emergency coolant vents that automatically open whenever the engine overheats."_  
"Manually operated?" she asked herself, she looked at the cockpit of the vehicle and noticed the operator was wearing a Federation armour suit, just like the ones 7th Platoon wears.  
The pilot spun the arms, and drove the machine straight at Samus. He swung an arm at her; she leapt out of the way, landing right behind the machine. She let loose a volley of missiles into its rear side. The pilot reacted by spinning the machine's torso in a wild onslaught towards her. One of the arms made contact with her and sent her flying into a wall.  
_I underestimated its agility. A lot faster than it looks._  
She charged her ice beam. _I'll freeze its arms. _She thought, thoughthe pilot wasn't interested in waiting for her to finish, he drove the machine at her again, this time its claw arms outstretched to grab her_. _She jumped to the side and discharged her attack, freezing the joint around Ferrocrusher's left arm. She followed up with a missile and blew the arm clean off.  
To compensate for the damage, the pilot engaged the machine's Electro Sweepers and charged at her once more. This time, right before Samus jumped out of the way, the pilot veered to the left, hitting Samus with the sweepers and knocking her into the air. As she came plummeting down, the pilot caught her, and spun her into the wall like a power drill. He pulled the arm back and was about to it again when Samus shot a wave beam, bolt at the cockpit, penetrating the glass canopy and shocking the pilot, stunning him long enough to make her move. Her wave beam was good at that. She put her foot against one of the claw fingers and preyed herself free.  
_Now I'm pissed._  
On the ground she charged her ice beam. The Ferrocrusher took another swing at her, to which she ducked and countered. The last arm frozen, she blew it off with another missile. Out of alternatives, the pilot tired one last frantic rush for the hunter. Samus hopped onto the sweepers, leapt over the machine and in midair melted the backside with a plasma beam barrage.  
_Come on let's see those vents of yours…there! _Four vents popped out of the back of the now stalled Ferrocrusher and a column of steam rose. _Good job, you pissed me off enough to use these. _ The room exploded with a boom as Samus launched a green tipped blur at the helpless machine. The missile impacted and violently shook the floor. It was her cope de grace, her super missiles. She only had 15, but each packed enough punch to collapse a sky scraper if aimed right.  
The exhaust vents shattered to tiny shards and the whole machine erupted in a fiery blast. Samus ran to the cockpit, yanked the body of pilot out and carried him to the other room right before the burning wreckage exploded a second time.  
She pressed him against the wall with her gun pointed right at his face.  
"Start talking James. Why did you try to kill me?"  
"S-Samus? Wha. What's going on? Where's Maurice and Anthony?"  
She pulled back and slammed him into the wall, "Don't play dumb! Who sent you?! Did some terrorist group pay you to kill me or are you working with the Krikens to confiscate any research material you can get your hands on?"  
"Wha? No I'd never betray the Commander or the others."  
"I'm not buying it dog. You'd better start telling me what I want to hear or-"  
"No! Please listen! I don't remember any of this. I was with Higgs and Favreau when the Commander assigned us to relocate to Sector Two and repair any critical equipment we came across. Then, we got separated when we were attacked by some wolf like creatures and then found myself sitting inside that load lifter thing a minute ago. I…I musta blacked out or something." There was desperation in his eyes, but she also saw determination. Conviction. As if he totally believed the story he was telling.  
She raised an eyebrow.  
"It's the truth! P-please don't kill me. I-I…"  
She set him down on the floor. "I believe you. I know when someone's lying to me. You're not. I saw that in your eyes."  
James took a deep breath and adjusted his helmet, "Thanks. But man, you're scary when you're ma-"

Samus gestured for him to be quiet and pointed to the hatch leading to the navigation booth in the next room. The hatch opened and there was Maricia standing huddled in a corner.


	10. 8 Interrogating the Witness

**8.**

James was busy talking to Anthony through one of the room's comm panels, while Samus was "interrogating" Maricia.  
"Wait, so you're saying you've got a survivor with you…and she's the daughter of the station director?" Anthony asked, "Wow. You're lucky to have found her. Maurice and I must suck at this search and rescue stuff. We haven't found a single survivor."  
"Yes quite the find," James said, glancing over at Samus and Maricia still talking to each other, "Samus is quite taken with her. She was ready to tear me a new one earlier when she thought I was an assassin. Now she's trying to be hospitable. Compassion is the last thing I'd expect from her right now."  
"She gets like that. Sensitive to the innocent but merciless to the enemy, that's Aran for ya."  
"I'm sorry for getting separated from you. I should have been…more aware. Maybe if I had been perceptive I could have warned you about those wolves coming at –"  
"Don't say that. Whatever happened, I doubt you coulda avoided it. There's a lotta strange crap going down. We can't prepare for all of it. But ya know, if we get to the bottom of it , we might find out why you attacked Samus."  
"Funny. I just tried to murder her and here she is treating me as if I was still a trusted team member. One moment I was her enemy, the next I was her ally again. Wouldn't any other person still be suspicious of me?"  
"Did she look you in the eye?"  
"To say the least. It felt like staring into the eyes of a tiger."  
"Then you're all good. I don't know how she does it but Samus has this knack for reading people. I've never seen that in another person. It's like she can find out all she needs to know about you after staring you down."  
"Did she do that to you when you first met?"  
"Oh yeah. Twice even. I guess she wasn't sure about me the first time, so she did it a second time. Hahahaaha! We were best friends after that."  
"Jeez. Must be some woman."  
"Yeah. no kidding," Anthony affirmed, "Have you or Samus heard from the Commander lately?"  
"Negative. I thought you might have."  
"Nah man. We did our hourly check in but no response. I figured there must be some interference so we moved on with our objective. But when we checked in again, I knew something was up."  
"That's…troubling. Oh, Samus wants to talk to you." James stepped back from the computer console and Samus stepped in his place.  
"Anthony, are you and Maurice alright?"  
"We're fine Princess, how are things at your end?"  
"Adequate. I just finished talking to Maricia. She claims the researchers here under Madeline Bergman were mutating creatures for use in the private armies of certain members of the Galactic Senate."  
"Private armies… Aren't the Space Command Fleet, Marine Corps and Federal Army enough to keep our space safe? Or are they expecting another Crescal Insurrection again?"  
"Right? That's what I thought. I don't think it's about protection Anthony. I think they wanted to stage a coup."  
"A coup?"  
"I'm not certain, but thats what the evidence says. What better way to back your forces than some man shredding behemoths. It would also explain the Cyborg Vanaralians."  
" Wow. Elite vannies following your orders without question. That's scary."  
"No kidding. I'll keep investigating. In the meantime, I want you and Maurice to link up in this navi room near the Materials Storehouse."  
"Yeah, I see it on my minimap. I think we can make that. We'll be there as soon as we can. ETA, 15 minutes."  
"Copy, out."


	11. 9 Suspicions and Shinesparking

9.  
Samus sat down in a corner and crossed her legs. Something wasn't adding up. Maricia said earlier the Federation had nothing to do with the weapons plot, and yet, just a moment ago, she held the Feds were the ones responsible all along. So which claim was true? Was she lying in the firstly? To hide the true information? Or perhaps she was lying now.  
Strange was Maricia's sudden change of behavior. In the conversation they had before James attacked, Ms. Alice stuck her as a strong woman with a cheerful attitude, definitely not afraid to shot a gun. When they talked afterwards in the navigation room, she seemed blank, shallow, and spoke in a monotone. She sounded like she was reading a book aloud.  
Without warning, the comlink speaker on the console erupted with noise. "Samus! We're getting attacked by a monster! We need your help! Now!"  
The hunter jumped to her feet, "Where are you?!"  
"Some huge ice field, Ugh!"  
"Anthony."  
"I'm fine, just hurry!"  
"Samus, wait! You'll never make it in time." Maricia interjected.  
"Watch me."  
"They're at least ten minutes away!" Retorted James.  
"Not if I _Shinespark_ there."  
"_What-_spark over there?"  
"Maricia, lock James in a cargo container. He might kill you against his will."  
Using her Speed Boaster, a suit ability allowing her to run at near supersonic speeds, Samus got close to the large room Anthony and Maurice were in in only a minute. Shinesparking was what she called acrobatic maneuvers performed while speed boosting. It was very difficult to learn, but she mastered the art on Zebes when she copied local creatures boosting, or effectively flying, out of a mile deep pit. Samus was four corridors away, when suddenly something exploded in front of her and was flung hard on the floor. It was a grenade. She rose to her feet and cursed when she got a look at the one who lobbed it at her. _Karkit! Vanies_. Only these seven had red armor instead of black and carried arm cannons. She suspected they were elites. Suddenly, four glass-like panels shot up around her to the ceiling. She was trapped.  
The seven surrounded the transparent case and fired an unrelenting barrage from their guns, their shots phased right through the glass and hit Samus. The must have had offshoot wave beams. She dodged them as best she could, but the confined space made evasion difficult. She fired back with her own wave beam but the Pirates just sidestepped out of the way.  
Almost helplessly, she watched as her energy gauge plummeted with each hit. Seven tanks, then seven tanks, five then four.  
_I am not going to die! You'll have do a lot better if you-  
_She was struck with huge blast discharged from the Vanie leader. A charged shot._  
Two tanks left._  
She had room to move, she didn't have room to fire a missile without harming herself, let alone a super missile. she threw herself at one of the transparent walls and punched it as hard as she could. Though she dented it, it definitely wasn't made of flimsy glass. She punched it again but the crack barely grew. The pirates fired another volley, missing her completely, though when the commander shot her; he was dead on, knocking her to the floor.  
_35 Energy. Critically low. One more and…  
_The leader roared for his men to cease firing. The killing blow ended the Great Hunter would be his glory alone.  
He charged his weapon one last time. He pointed it at Samus. He fired.

_Adam, Anthony, Mom, Dad. I'm sorry._

The Pirate leader stared at the lifeless body of that accursed woman for a century. Until one of his followers asked, "Is she dead Commander Weavel?"  
"…Yes, I think so," he took a deep breath, then he announced triumphantly, "My comrades, today will go down as the greatest moment in our history, even greater when we first discovered space flight on our home of Vanaral. Today is the day I, Weavel, killed Samus Aran.


	12. 10 Weavel to Hell

10.  
"Unfortunate, isn't it, that Commander Ridley and Mother weren't here to see this glorious-"  
Abruptly, the body rolled up into a ball. It dropped a blue sphere of energy.  
"No."  
The sphere detonated, shattering the walls and blowing the Vanies into the walls. Samus rose to her feet and fired a super missile at one of the Pirates, killing him instantly, shaking the room. Two of the pirates fired wave beams at her, but she jumped out of the way and hit them with each with a plasma beam shot to the head.  
_Four left._  
Weavel shrieked, "KILL HER NOW! KILL HER NOW!"  
One threw a grenade at her while the others continued to fire. To them, she was spontaneously impossible to hit. She grabbed the grenade, took one of the Pirates and punched the thing in the gut with it. She leapt away. The Pirate frantically tried to remove the munition lodged in its stomach as the grenade blew the pathetic creature to pieces. She turned and delivered a devastating round house kick to a Pirate rushing her with its claws. The creature was sent flying into the last subordinate Vanie where Samus finished both of them off with a Super Missile.  
Weavel was hysterical. Right as he was about to lose a charge wave beam shot at Samus approaching him, she froze his gun into an ice club. She was still walking towards him. He grabbed a pistol from his belt, she shot it out of his hands. A meter away now, he took a furious swipe at her with his combat knife. She ducked and punched him square in the gut.  
She stood over him now with a foot on his head.  
"How are you still alive!? I KILLED YOU! I KILLED YOU!"  
"Reserve energy tanks. They inject an emergency supply of energy into my suit whenever my shields dissipate. Most useful tool I ever acquired on Zebes. Oh, and tell Ridley I said hi, IN HELL!"  
"CURSE YOU ARAN!"  
The last thing he saw was the red flash of a plasma bolt.


	13. 11 Rhedogian and Remorse

11.  
_Anthony. No. I hope I'm not too late. _  
As fast as she could, she boosted out of the chamber and the following corridors until she reached the room where Anthony and Maurice were engaged. The creature, called a Rhedogian she recalled, was this two legged, winged mess, of spikes with two huge mandibles in front of it. Suddenly, it blasted Maurice with a beam from the eye at the center of its body.  
"Maurice!" Anthony called out.  
_No one will die on my watch!  
_Samus fired a Super Missile at the creature. One of the Rhedogian's massive mandibles broke to pieces. But as soon as it saw Samus, it soared into the air and dropped right down in front of her. She fired another super missile at it, shattering most of its front carapace. It grabbed her with its tentacles hoisted her into the air, then smashed her in to the ground. Samus curled into her morph ball, still stuck in its grasp, and blasted her way out of its hold with her energy bombs. She was about to hit it with her plasma beam when Anthony told her to get out of the way. His under handed Plasma Cannon pointed right at it.  
She called back, "Wait!"  
The Rhedogian fired its eye laser at her in the hopes of striking her while she was distracted, only managing to graze her foot when she dove on top of its head and fired an Ice beam right into its eye.  
The monster howled in pain, trying to rub the ice out of its eye. A second later, a white hot bolt pierced the monster. The thing fell to the ground, screeching in agony as its life spilled onto the surrounding snow. It let out one final howl and went limp.  
Samus lowered her gun and took the deepest breath in her life. She turned to Anthony cradling Maurice. She saw the both of them cradling Maurice's chest, trying to stop the bleeding. Maurice's visor was propped open.  
Samus kneeled down beside them.  
"Hang on, don't die on me."  
"I…I. I don't..." Maurice replied, his voice faint.  
"Stay with me!"  
"Higgs, I don't have much left, we both know it" he looked at the space hunter, "Samus, I see how angry you are. You're…*cough* looking just like me when I stood over my brother dying on Kakunai Beach during the Horus Insurrection. I yelled for medics, but no one came. Dead or too far away to hear. So, as this idiot lay there dying," he smiled as he recalled the memory, "he…He told me something I'll never forget. _'you did good soldier….you did good. You tried that's all that…m-matters_' It was the stupidest, simplest thing in the world. Out of everything he could have said to me, he chose that. And I…I tell you what. When I looked back on it, I realized that was exactly what I needed. A simple affirmation of my hard work. A modest encouragement. Years later, when I was sure I'd have b-blamed myself for his death, I didn't I l-looked back and remembered what he…he said.  
"Samus, I don't know what you've got in that suit, but I'm sure you rushed here as fast as you could to…to save us *cough*." He put his faint hand on her shoulder plate, "Sometimes, you lose your comrades. And…there's nothing you can do to stop it…You just gotta stand there, accept…reality and honor their sacrifice. I'm a redshirt, I don't matter Samus. You gotta keep on living without 'em. There was nothing you could have done to…to…save. M-me. Samus…y-you did good. Yes. You…did…guuuuu."  
Maurice went limp. Samus and Anthony stood there for a long time without saying anything. They just stared at Maurice. Then Anthony punched the ground, making a clanging sound when his blow went through the artificial dirt and hit raw steel. He stood up and stared off in the distance.  
Samus closed Maurice's eyes. She then closed his visor and shoveled a mound of snow over his head with her left hand. Anthony turned to Samus still sitting over Maurice's body. She looked up at him and gestured for the door. The two walked back to the navigation room James and Maricia were still in. There were no creatures crawling about. No monsters to kill.  
There was only silence.


	14. 12 Reminiscence of Crescal II

12.  
"Samus, I may not get another chance to ask you: why you left the Spec Op Brigade?"  
"Haven't I told you? You were there when it happened."  
"Nah. I got shot in the arm remember? I was in the medical ward for weeks."  
"Ah yes… It was a complex situation with a simple solution."  
"Tell me."  
"Five years ago, before I blew up the space Pirates on Zebes for the first time, the local Crescal III planetary government was growing at odds with the Federation. They claimed their rights as citizens under the Interplanetary Charter were being trampled on. Since Crescal III was situated near the border with the Kriken Empire, the Federation needed a local outpost in the event of another war. Since Crescal was a rural, back-water world, it was not without opposition that the entire planet became a military staging area. A new Federal mandate passed that required Crescans to forcibly lodge federal marines. And when the Crescans refused, they were heavily taxed. When the taxes became unbearable, they refused to take it anymore and began a rebellion.  
On the eve of this rebellion, Adam and our platoon of commandoes had been assigned to raid some villages for illegal arm caches. The plan was to calmly come in with superior firepower to force them to peacefully give up arms. Though tensions were high, our arms collection didn't get out of hand. I was pleased. That is, until the third village we reached.  
The villagers had formed a line and were dumping their pistols and rifles in our speeder's cargo trunk. But after an hour's of collection, we only had about a dozen firearms in our possession. I was certain a village of three thousand had more than just 12 weapons to turn in. I must have been thinking out loud, something I haven't done since, because Corporal Siegfried and two others went off in search of more arms. Five minutes later, I heard a commotion in the distance. I had someone take my place and I investigated the noise. It was Siegfried. He was demanding a family of three reveal where the town's weapon cache was. When they told him they didn't know, he pointed his gun at them. I walked in the door and he told me what happened. He demanded again, and they gave him the same response. I didn't realize it at the time, but something about that situation seemed horrifically familiar to me. The mother on her knees cradling her young daughter, the father acting like a human shield for his family. _Where have I seen this before?_ , I asked myself. Suddenly, Siegfried shot the Dad in the head. The mother screamed, then Siegfried shot her too. Leaving their 10 year old daughter bawling as she struggled to wake her parents up from eternal slumber.  
"Stupid peasants." he said, "Should have made it easier on yourselves and told me where the cache was."  
Then a light went on in my head. I was back on K-2L, the colony my family lived. When the Space Pirates, led by Ridley launched a raid on the colony, they came to Landing Pad Eight where my parents and I were waiting for a shuttle to take us to a fallout bunker. Ridley demanded to know where our Afloraltite was, crystals once used to power ships, and when my parents told him they didn't know, he murdered them before me.  
"Stupid humans," Ridley said, "Should have made it easier on yourselves and…"  
"They didn't know," I said to Ridley  
"What?" Siegfried asked.  
"I said he didn't know anything!"  
"It doesn't matter now. Their deaths will be an example to the others, never to rebel against the Federation. You of all people should realize-"  
I grabbed him by the throat, "You killed her parents! She has no one now. There was no justification for what you did. None whatsoever!"  
I don't recall what happened next. All I remember is standing looking at an unconscious commando through a hole made through six walls. Like someone threw him. I was confused for a moment. _Who did this? _ Then it clicked.  
He was helpless, Anthony. Coulda shot him, but out of respect for Adam and the others I didn't. That's when Adam called me on the com.  
"52nd Platoon, this is Major Malkovich. Be advised, firefights have erupted between us and local Crescans. We are now officially at war. You are weapons free and authorized to terminate any citizens you see. Repeat, terminate citizens."  
"Did I hear you correctly Sir? You want us to kill _all_ citizens on sight?"  
"Affirmative Captain Aran. Shoot to kill."  
"Are you serious?! They're unarmed! They're helpless! They pose no threat to us!"  
"That's not how the brass see it, lady. As far as they're concerned, every Crescan is a rebel."  
"Forget what the brass says! Not every citizen wants war. Most of them just want to in peace!"  
Adam was starting to get irritated, "Well, unless they start wearing pink-pokadoted uniforms we're not going to be able to tell between-"  
"Then just shoot the ones with the guns! You're ordering me to kill innocent women and children here!"  
"Those are your orders. Execute them."  
"I'm not doing it."  
"Are you questioning my authority Captain Aran?"  
"If it means refusing to gun down thousands just because a few stuffed shirts in the Senate said so, then yes, I am."  
"That's insubordination Samus."  
"I don't ruttin' care what the kark is. I'M NOT DOING IT!"  
"KARKIT ARAN!" He yelled. I threw my comlink on the ground and I stomped it to pieces. One of the other commandoes asked me if I was okay. I spun around and threatened to blow a hole in his gut if he didn't leave me alone. And the rest was history. I was court marshaled for insubordination where thereafter I pulled a few strings and got myself honourably discharged from the service a few weeks later and became a bounty hunter. Don't know why, but Adam kept the entire incident under wraps. Probably did me a favour in the long run, I've never had any problems with the Feds after that. If he had gone public with the incident, I'm sure they'd never have hired me as often as they did for those "suicide missions."  
"Good night…That's quite a story. Now I know why you never talk about it."  
Samus nodded, "Like I said, a complex situation with a simple answer. I didn't like playing dog for pampered pricks, so I left for a job where I could make my own rules."  
"Heh, the Commander musta bent over backwards keeping the whole thing a secret. All I knew was that your service hours were up and you decided to walk first chance you got. It always struck me as strange. I figured you to be the one who'd stay in the service longer than any of us. You sure liked to blow stuff up."  
"Still do."  
Anthony laughed and gave her a punch on the shoulder.  
"Yah, you ruttin' do. Same old Samus."


	15. 13 Terrorists and Tracking Adam

13.  
When Samus and he returned to the Materials Storehouse, just a chamber away from the Nav Room where they left Maricia, they found James, SMG in hand, walking about.  
Samus and James were standing crouched behind on of the cargo crates, watching James probe the room. He didn't notice them.  
"Princess. What's he doin'?"  
"Looking for someone."  
"Who?"  
"My guess Maricia. Look closely at his eyes. See how blank they look."  
"Yeah…Like doll's eyes…Lifeless."  
"Whatever going on, I doubt he's in control of his actions. I'm gonna disarm him. If he's still got that blank stare after I do. Tackle him."  
"Got it."  
Samus aimed for James, switched to her power beam and shot his gun out of his hands.  
"Now Anth!"  
Anthony yelled and tackled James as hard as he could. They wrestled on the ground for a moment until Anthony got James into a double arm bar.  
James flopped on the ground trying to get free, until he abruptly stopped resisting and looked around the room in confusion."  
"What the kark? Higgs? Is that you? Ouch! Not so hard man."  
"Let him go. He's fine now."  
Anthony did and James got to his feet.  
"I-I. I don't know what happened. I musta blacked out again."  
"Bet you did," Samus confirmed, "Where's Maricia?"  
"I don't know. I let her lock me in a cargo hold just like you said, but after five minutes she came back and unlocked me. As soon as I saw her, I blanked out. Then I woke up in Higgs's pin."  
"Sounds about right," Samus stated, "we saw you looking around the chamber a moment ago, presumably looking for Maricia. I take it she's still alive…hopefully."  
"Should we look for her?" Anthony asked.  
"No. It might be better for now that none of us know where she is. She knows this station better than any of us, I'm sure she'll be fine…for now. Have any of you spoken with Adam lately?"  
They shook their heads.  
"Then I think it's time we meet up with him. See if he's okay. See if he's uncovered any leads."  
They turned to leave when James stopped short and scanned the room, "Wait, where's Favreau?"  
Anthony turned to James and shook his head. Samus remained still with her back to them.  
"Oh. I'm sorry. He was a… respectable man."  
Samus glanced back at James, "We'll mourn him later. Right now, we need to focus on getting to Adam. Make sure he's okay."  
Much later, James, Anthony and Samus stood in the control chamber where Adam said he'd be supervising the mission since they defeated that Brug Mass several hours ago, though he was nowhere to be seen.  
"Could Malkovich have left us a message or recording of some kind?" James inquired.  
"He might have. Especially if he knew he would be captured or had to relocate," Anthony replied, "it sounds like something he would have done."  
James sat down in a chair before the computer console in the room and skimmed through various data logs.  
"He didn't record any of his conversations with us or the other group. Even if he did, he would have kept in on his data pad, not on an unsecure network. Though… did manage to find this:"  
He pointed to the holoscreen with three lines of elaborate symbols from side to side.  
"What is that?" Anthony asked himself, "Some kinda code?"  
"No, it's Chozon." Samus accounted.  
"Chozon?"  
"The written language of the Chozo. I taught it to Adam years ago. During missions where direct communication was impossible, Adam and I sent each other messages in Chozon. We were among the few humans who knew how to speak and write the language in the galaxy. The message reads:  
_Had to relocate when KG went nuts. Madeline Bergman never project director of BW's. Dr. Reinhardt was. Made weapons for Iron Cesta, never for Feds. Psychic organism existed to control BWs. Was executed. Find me and Lyle._ "  
"Iron Cesta, as in the _terrorist_ organization?" Anthony queried, "Weren't they the ones who helped the Space Pirates bomb the Federal capital two years ago?"  
"They were," James established, "And if they ever got an army of mutant animals, they woulda unleashed them on dozens of defenseless worlds. I mean does it surprise you? These are the guys that tried to gas Mars with Miteralis, twice."  
"Yeah, that planet exterminator virus."  
"James, does that log mention anything about Adam's current whereabouts?" Samus asked.  
"Not that I can see. That Chozon message was the only thing he left."  
Unexpectedly, a red light started flashing to the left of the holopanal and an electronic voice said, "Incoming message"  
James pushed the button and a message appeared, Samus, I have your friends Malkovich, Smithsonian, Misawa and Ms. Alice here with me. I have no intention of letting them go peacefully. You'll have to come down here to Sector 3 and pry them from my cold dead hands. Meet me at the Combat Arena in Sector Three. You have one hour before I execute them. Good luck_."_  
"Who ya think sent that message?" James asked. Samus smiled, "Not sure, but I'm going to find out."  
"Wait. It could be a trap." Anthony interjected  
"Oh there's little doubt of that. But we're out of options.""So we're just gonna spring the trap?" "Exactly."


	16. 14 Raptured to Sector 3

14.

The three stopped at Samus's ship in the hanger. The hunter mentioned something about, equipment optimizations. She went inside through the top hatch of her ship. _Removing my power beam and wave beam leaves me with space for five more Super Missiles and two more Energy tanks. _She came out the hatch a moment later in a purple suit.  
"What's up with your suit?"  
"Gravity suit modification. It allows me to traverse water and space as if I was within normal a normal gravity field."  
_I usually use one suit type at time so I have room for all my other toys._ She reminded herself, _I wish I had an excuse to use the light or dark suits again, those things looked so karkin' awesome. Though, really only good at shielding me from light or dark energy attacks. No one uses those.  
_"Here's where we split up. You two stay in the control room Adam was in until further notice. You can monitor me from there."_  
_"I'm not about to let you lone wolf it Samus. We're coming with you."  
"No", she insisted, "do that, you'll only be a liability. I want you kept safe. In the event I fall, you'll be responsible for contacting the Federation about everything that happened. Whoever is holding the others, you'll be able to see it too, right?"  
"Yeah. But, why don't we contact the feds now? They can have troops go in for us."  
"One, that's putting soldiers at risk. Two, I think our communications are still being jammed. And three, that's just no fun."  
"Okay, I don't have to like it."  
Samus chuckled, "Well I'm not asking you to am I?"  
"Good luck Samus." James said as he shook her hand.  
"Thank you James. You too. And no matter what happens, stay alive. You got that?"  
The two gave her a thumbs-up and replied in unison, "Yes mam!"  
She descended in the main lift, the triad elevator pillar thing. A computer voice chimed in, highlighting the various facts about the level, "Sector Three: the pride and joy of Duron V. The artificial ocean it's designed to replicate is home to three thousand species of undersea flora and fauna."  
When the elevator hit the water and brought them down to the artificial sea floor, the window before her granted a spectacular view of the underwater research center. A moment later, the voice chimed in again, "Using state-of-the-art hologram projectors, the developers created an enclosure for Sector Three resembling an underwater cavern. The cliffs you see extend half a mile down. Each building you see in this majestic city-like enclosure is a separate research lab. We are very proud of our achievements here at Duron V. Enjoy your stay."  
_Am I still on a station? _She asked herself,_ it looks more like Atlantis.  
_The elevator brought her to the main city level. She followed a long hall, orange lights lit the way, to a huge stone-like hatch, which lead into a spacious room with a massive glass ceiling. There were bloodstains on the floor, next to lounge chairs and hot tub built into the floor. Overhead were hundreds of schools of fish swimming by in rainbows of colors. Unfortunate she couldn't stay. This was more beautiful than the biosphere. She'd love take her fifth vacation here. Provided the whole place didn't self-destruct when she left, like everything seems to do.  
There was a sign on the wall to her right with arrows pointing towards two hatches flaking the walls of the room. To her left lead to Research labs 1-100, to her right lead to labs 101-200 and the combat arena. She took a right and followed the path as it winded and curved through dozens of wooden doors leading to the labs on her left side. To her right were repeating wide windows that looking out into the artificial sea.  
Eventually, she reached the end of the hall at a blue hatch that lead to the arena. Above it, she was shocked to find the body of the mystery creature she'd been tracking through Sector 2 pasted on the wall covered in webbing. Only this thing was an empty shell a. Like the shell of the fuzzy she found in Biosphere.  
So it evolves, like a caterpillar into a butterfly. I wonder what it is now. Jeez, I wish I killed it when I had the chance. Still, as long as it doesn't try to its hostages, this might be fun.  
She felt that dark presence she felt back in the biosphere was here again. It was strange; she hadn't felt this uneasy since confronting Ridley in Norfair on Zebes five years ago.


	17. 15 The Fiery Arena

15. _  
Well, Here I go, _she said to herself as she took a deep breath, _No turning back. Don't get scared now.  
_She opened the blue hatch and entered the dimly lit Combat Arena. She kept her head on a swivel, expecting an attack from anywhere. There were four pillars in the arena , someone could behind them.  
Behind her, right above the hatch, sat perched a bird-like creature. To the creature's left were four gagged people hanging chained by their arms.  
Samus locked onto the huge creature.  
"Who are you?" she demanded.  
The creature craned its neck and blew a fireball at the floor below the arena stage. Suddenly, a ring of orange lights illuminated the room. Samus recognized the creature immediately and it most certainly wasn't a bird. It was a dragon.  
"Ridley." she confirmed.  
"I'm glad you remember me. He said that was to be expected. Unfortunately, I am but a clone of the Ridley you remember, not the real thing, but with some genetic improvements. I promise you I will not go down easily."  
"Wait. You're not him?  
"Afraid not Aran. As much as I wish I was."  
"How and who cloned you?  
"I assume the researchers here at this station. Ridley was one of your most formidable foes. I suppose they wanted to unleash an army of him upon the galaxy."  
"For Iron Cesta, right?"  
"You weren't supposed to know that, though then again, it hardly matters now. I applaud your intuition."  
"Hang on, If you're not Ridley, then why are you here working for this "he" you mentioned? Ridley was the Pirate supreme commander, you're not. Why not flee and live your life in peace?"  
"Hunter, you do not understand is the life of a Vanaralian. I may be a clone, but I am still bred with the same drives as my predecessor. We live for war; we spill blood for the pleasure of it. Peace means nothing to me. To me, you offer is reducing me to a pitiful life of laziness and isolation. I fight for my master because he's offering me a place as second in command to the new Vanaralian leader. A position I'm sure to relish just as much my predecessor did."  
"New Pirate leader? But they're all dead? Who is left to lead the Vanies?"  
The clone licked his lips and shook his head. He wasn't talking. Samus grined.  
"I'll give you this; you are far more civil than Ridley used to be. I may enjoy killing you even more than I did him for the fourth time."  
When the dragon laughed, it sounded like a mix between a crow and hyena all at once, "You'll try I'm sure. It's simple: you win, they go free. I win, I ravaging a defenseless galaxy in your absence."  
"No need to keep talking then."  
"Quite."  
The dragon soared off his peach and encircled Samus in the air, like a vulture over its prey. He and Samus exchanged fire blasts at each other before he swooped down to engage her in melee.  
He took two claw swipes at her; she did a backflip and landed two plasma bolts on him. The clone inhaled deeply and unleashed a flaming gale at her, hurdling her into one of the arena pillars.  
_Two energy tanks gone, seven left.  
_The clone swooped in and grabbed her, he was about to slam her into the floor when he realized the woman he was holding was actually a white hot sphere. A second later, a huge explosion erupted from his clenched hand. The clone screeched as Samus flipped out of her ball and lined up a shot.  
_Having trouble seeing? A moment's blindness is all I need._  
She launched five Super Missiles at the dragon. But only one hit. The clone recovered way faster than Ridley would have and dove out of the way just as the missiles impact the wall. Supers were fast, but they couldn't track moving targets.  
"You'll have to do better than that!" he called to her. She was surprised a power bomb did so little damage to him it blew in his hand. He wasn't lying when he mentioned genetic modifications.  
He flew into the air and inhaled a second time, this time he loosed a huge flaming meteor straight at the arena, sending out a massive molten shockwave. Samus hurdled over the attack, but before she landed, Ridley dived down and grabbed her. He flew her into the arena wall, and skid her against it like a metal grinder. He took her off it, blasted her with a fireball and pile-drived her into floor.  
Samus slowly rose from the floor. Despite her shields holding at about two tanks, they could only stop so much. It felt like two, maybe three ribs were broken. Her arm felt dislocated. Her visor was cracked and her HUD was full of static. She took offer her helmet and spat a wad of blood. Ridley sat on one of the pillars, waiting for her to make the next move. He wanted her to be at peak performance when he slew her.  
"You'll have to do a lot better than that, clone." she gurgled.  
"Impressive, no wonder Weavel couldn't kill you."  
She put her helmet back on. She gestured for him to make the first move with her hand. He agreed. He charged up another fireblast, but this time she was ready for it. She launched herself into a spinning flip and turned into a flying buzz saw of plasma and sliced the clone partially in the chest.  
The dragon fell off the pillar flat on his back. Still in the air, she jumped off the pillar and punched him right in the cut she made in his chest. The creature coughed a green spray. She grabbed it by the neck cranked its mouth open and fired two plasma beam shots right down its throat.  
The clone rolled on its side and flapped a gale from his wings, sending Samus skidding on her back. It made a stab at her with its tail, slicing her obliques.  
_One tank left._  
She grabbed it's still outstretched tail and planted her feet firmly in the ground. The clones eyes grew wide as the hunter, easily a tenth of his size, swung him around and threw him straight into the wall. He quickly recovered. He pushed himself off the wall and roared. All of a sudden, a coat of black water encased his entire body, sealing his wounds. He screeched once more and threw himself at Samus.  
She flipped to the side right as he was about to rake her with his sweeping claws.  
She charged her plasma beam and hit his right in the head, as he swooped in a second time. The giant shrugged off the attack.  
"Can't hurt me now!"  
_What?! _ _A shield?!_  
Ridley dropped to the ground and inhaled again. Samus fired a Super Missile at its chest, but it bounced off him like a Ping-Pong ball. He breathed a fiery gale once more and and stuck Samus on the right shoulder.  
Her HUD read: Reserve tanks injected. Two tanks remaining.  
_I think he just broke my arm.  
_The dragon laughed once again. "Come now hunter, have anything left?"  
She ran at him and tried hitting him with a screw attack. He dodged it. She tried it again and instead of dodging it, he caught her mid-air and chucked her into the floor.  
_78 units remaining._  
_One more like that and I'm done. Karkit! There has to be something I can hit him with! Power Bombs don't work, Supers don't work, plasma doesn't work. Then what ruttin' does? He's moving too fast to hit him with another screw attack. What left do I…wait. _Too Fast._ That's it.  
_She switched weapons and started charging her Ice Beam.  
"Another charged shot? Is that the best you can do? My shield protects me perfectly."  
"You may be a clone, and you may be civil, but you still got his cockiness." She fired her ice beam. Instead of damaging him, it partially froze his wings and brought him hurdling onto floor.  
"What is this?"  
"Retribution." Samus ran to the back of the arena wall and threw herself full force at the clone. Two meters away from him, her speed booster kicked in. She flipped into a screw attack at the last second and sliced right threw him. She landed on one knee right behind him, covered in green blood. The giant dragon screeched and fell to the ground.  
She took a deep breath and sat down beside his head. He looked her straight in the eye. There was a huge green hole in his chest. Surely with his dying breath, he would curse her like Ridley did every time.  
Instead, he laughed, even congratulated her, "Well…played Aran. Did I…live up to his…r-reputation?"  
She nodded, "You surpassed it."  
"Then…I …c-content….thank….yuuugghghhh…."


	18. 16 A Bitter Villain

16.  
As soon as Maricia was ungagged, she screamed to Samus, "Samus! We need to leave this station!" her eyes weren't blank as before. They looked deep and she sounded anything but monotone.  
"Why?"  
"Because Hannibal will control again and stop me from telling…" she trailed off. Her eyes went blank again.  
"That was all I needed to hear." Samus picked Maricia up by the scruff of her lab coat and locked her outside the arena. She untied Adam, Lyle and K.G, handed their rifles back to them (which were sitting in a corner behind a pillar) and gestured for them to come close and whispered into his ear, "Adam, do you anything about a Hannibal?"  
"It was an aquatic psychic organism with the potential to contr-" he trailed off.  
"Adam?"  
Adam's eyes went blank. He pointed his rifle at himself.  
He spoke flatly, "Leave this station or I'll kill him."  
"Who are you? Are you Hannibal?"  
"Leave. Now."  
"Go ahead. Kill him. I know you're Hannibal. You've been the one controlling Maricia haven't you? Trying to prevent her from revealing your existence, giving us misleading information. Then you tried to get James to kill her. Why?"

"Oh come off it. You're exposed! What does it benefit you to be silent anymore?"  
Adam sighed, "You're sharper than I realized Aran. Bravo."  
"Why did you have James try to kill Maricia? Couldn't you have made her do it herself? Made her shot herself, made her throw herself to ice wolves or off an artificial cliff?"  
"I tried that, believe me. It seems that my powers have their limits in the human mind. I cannot make someone commit suicide. I attempted to feed her to my pets I am sure you have met, but she got to safety before I could. It was frustrating how evasive she was."  
"What do you want? You've got an army of monsters. What are you gonna do with them?"  
"…" Adam said nothing. Samus heard a muffled voice outside the hatch. She opened it.  
"He wants to loose them on Earth!"  
"What?"  
Her eyes went blank. Adam gasped, seemingly in control of his actions again.  
"Abababababa! No," said Maricia, "she says what I want her to say."  
"You playing musical chairs with people? Fine. Adam. Spill. What do you know?"  
"I did some digging before I was captured by Ridley's clone. Hannibal was a special specimen with extraordinary psychic powers. He developed mind control and telekinesis and had a special bond with a researcher, Dr. M. Reese. Much to the distaste of program director Dr. Reinhardt who thought Hannibal should speak to him exclusively. Reinhardt, from what I gather was a very cruel man who subjugated Hannibal to torturous exercises and experiments to test his abilities. Later, Reinhardt forced Reese to betray Hannibal's trust if she wanted to keep her job. In response to which, Hannibal attempted to kill Reinhardt. A week ago, Hannibal was supposed to have been terminated. Guess he wasn't."  
"Wait, they tortured him?"  
"Yes they did. It's implied though, the details are vague. Probably didn't want to admit it."  
"Hannibal, what did they do to you?"  
"They…they put great needles into my flesh and into my brain. They electrocuted me. They gave me narcotic drugs to "boost" my abilities that made me feel like my insides were coming apart. They bathed me in a gel to see if I could survive in space. I felt like I was suffocating while they did. I could then survive in a vacuum, but only after countless pains to me. They sometimes cut off my tentacles, since, to you humans I resemble a giant octopus, to see if I would bleed to death or regenerate the limb. I did neither, so they pumped me with more drugs to try and create a regenerative immune system."  
"Do you hate them?"  
"Do you hate Vanaralians? Did you hate Ridley?"  
"Stupid question, sorry. And yes I did. How did you know?"  
"I read minds. I read yours repeatedly. I saw you brutally murder everything I put in your way. If I could have controlled you, no one would've have been safe. "  
"You tried?"  
"Yes, three times even. Twice in the biosphere. Once here in my realm."  
"Were you the dark presence I felt?"  
"I was. Is it force of will Samus? Or perhaps your suit?"  
"Neither, the Chozo who adopted me after my parents died gave me great strength. They genetically modified me into the ultimate warrior. Mental strength was part of the deal."  
"Interesting."  
"And you were the one jamming our comms correct?"  
"Partially the station's…unique wiring, partially me. But yes. Direct communications was prevented by my deeds."  
"And you were the one who caused the damage to the station yes? Indeed. My abilities, as Adam failed to mention grow considerably with time. As does their range. I grew powerful enough to release the locks on 60% of all specimens here. That amounts to thousands of creatures, thousands of very deadly creatures, which I could control. The other 40% I broke out with those I ruled. I then rallied them together and murdered every human on this station."  
"Still, why kill them? Why not rule them and have them produce more weapons for your disposal?"  
"I tried that. And unfortunately I could not. Humans have complex, intricate brains that require an intense amount of energy and focus to control. 99% of the animals here, however, are not. I can control thousands of monsters at once, but only one human at a time. Besides, why would I want to rule stinking meatbags like you? I have observed enough of you for long enough to know you are all the same. You are cruel, mean spirited demons who delight in the suffering of others and should be executed."  
"By what means?" Adam interjected.  
"I am not abou…oh who am I kidding. We are almost there anyways, what could you possibly do to stop me."  
"Stop you from what?"  
"Why, by smashing this station right into the heart of your federation of course: Earth. Well, after I get my army off that is. Then I smash it."  
The three humans looked flabbergasted.  
"Oh goodness! Is something the matter Samus? Adam? Lyle? In all of your tactical planning and overseeing, did you not notice the station drifting out the system? I have been moving it shortly after you arrived. Imagine the carnage. You would appreciate that, right Samus? Every monster you encountered here, unleashed upon helpless civilians, over whelmed in seconds. Thousands of Reos, Ice Wolves, Vanaralians and Rhedogians. It will be glorious. "  
"But why?"  
"I have deemed humans too disgusting to exist. Judgment must be leveled on them. Your world will burn with your sins."


	19. 17 You have Twenty Minutes

17.  
"You don't have to do this Hannibal. Millions of us are evil. Your right. Reinhardt was evil, the lab workers were evil, kark, I'm probably evil too. But not everyone on that world is. You are going to punish billions for the sins of a few. You think that's justice? That's revenge. And you want to blame a whole race for it."  
"I am afraid the die has been cast. There is no turning back now."  
"You still have a choice. Reinhardt chose to torture you, and he paid for it. Don't make a choice you pay for too. I can find a place so far from the federation you'll never see another man again. I can give you peace, Hannibal. I can protect you from them."  
"Peace? Protect me from them? Who are you kidding, you ARE, them. And I'll make you all suffer for what you did to me."  
"Not if I stop you ."  
"Oh do it. I dare you."  
"Anthony, do you read? Anthony? Karkit!"  
"I am not going to make it that easy for you."  
"Guys, we need to get to the control bridge ASAP. Shut off the engines from there."  
The possessed girl smiled, "You cannot stop the engines Aran. I had a high security lock put on it before I killed everyone. "  
"Don't believe you."  
"Fine. Just wanted to save you the hassle of finding out yourself. Shame you waste the last few moments of your life trying to stop me. Can't you understand I prepared for every variable? There's nothing left for you to do, but lay down and die like a good little girl. Oh and you can have this one back." Maricia fell to the floor; she would have hit her head if Adam didn't catch her in time.  
"Like the gates of hell I will!" Samus retorted. She told the others to follow her and they bolted out of the hall.  
_For what it's worth, demons_, said a voice in her head, _You have twenty minutes until the escape pods just launched hit Earth. Guess what they are loaded with? _


	20. 18 Holding the Line in Osaka

12 hours of intense fighting later. She didn't die, but she got close to it. When her ship ran out of missiles and chain gun ammo, she resorted to auto pilot and used up every last super missile she had on available. When she needed more, she lured Desbrachians away from settled areas and power bombed them. When she still needed more, she threw overturned tanks at them. When out of missiles, she took rocket launchers from soldiers and shot them at the monsters. When those ran out, she froze them with her ice beam and beat the freaks senseless with the launcher she happened to be holding. She helped coordinate airstrikes, and artillery bombardments from capital ships in orbit. 12 hours later and the most intense fight of her life was over.  
It had been years since she got to use her gunship in a firefight. Seldom she summoned her ship to dispatch her foes. She preferred to taste their blood spilt by her own hands, though today, it seemed she had little choice. Besides. Lives were on the line. Bloodlust mattered not. People mattered more than fun. And that was definitely not fun.  
She paid the Marines a wave goodbye, if it were not for them, she might have never won. They supplied her with all she needed. Their mortar strikes were instrumental in holding the Desbrachians off while she reloaded. She jumped back into her ship and contacted Admiral Dane, who reported the destruction of Duron V's engines.  
"Have you heard from Commander Malkovich?"  
"Negative. We're preparing a battalion to rescue him."  
"No need Admiral. I'll get him."  
"Aran, what are you thinking? You need rest and time to address your injuries. You'll kill yourself if yo-"  
"I'll med myself on the way. Save the men for their families, Admiral. I don't have anyone to return to unlike them."  
The Admiral laughed, "The galaxy does Aran. We'd rather have a person to pin that medal than a casket."  
"Also, form a perimeter around the station. Make sure nothing gets off unless it's in my ship. Not back in an hour, blow the thing to dust."  
"Roger Aran, I'll trust your expertise. Heh, as usual."  
A while later, Samus neared Duron's control bridge. The last place Adam was before contact was lost. Karkit! her ribs were killing her.  
_This is exactly the reason I didn't want you to stay. As soon I finished the Desbrachians, I knew Hannibal would hostage. I don't care if you had to do it, I should …I could. _She sighed deeply, _Why can't I be two ruttin' places at once!  
_The hatch opened. She was surprised to see Adam still in the room, though bound in a white wrapping with a giant spider standing over him.  
_Giant spider, nice touch._  
The beast hissed at Samus and shot two string shots at her. Samus sidestepped and cauterized its skull with a plasma bolt. The behemoth dropped to the floor, limbs twitching.  
She began uniting Adam out of his web binding.  
"Why did you leave?" Adam asked her.  
"Now or then?"  
"Then."  
"Because you asked me to do something asinine. Against everything I stood for."  
"It was a difficult situation," he retorted now free and standing beside her, "We all had to make tough decisions."  
"You asked me to slaughter civilians."  
"I needed you to follow my orders."  
Samus spun around to face him, "I needed you to respect who I was."  
"Any other soldier would have done it," Adam retorted, "I thought you were trained to follow orders."  
"Well forgive me for not for being a mindless dog for you. Forgive me for not being Siegfried willing to murder thousands at a moment's notice."  
"Those were my orders Samus, it's what needed to be done."  
"Needed to be done?" she countered, her tone laced in sarcasm, "You turned the planet into a sepulture! And just because a few pampered pigs in the Senate told you, too."  
"Samus they-look, I was in no position to rebel. I had five other officers on the bridge at the time I gave the order. If I didn't give it, they would have removed me from command and given it themselves. There was nothing I could have done."  
"Adam, you told me a long time ago, 'We all have our choices to make.' And that day you made yours and I made mine. And I didn't want to serve under a government that condoned planetary genocide just for a military outpost."  
Adam was perturbed, you could see it in his red face. "Okay Miss Aran," he fired back, then why after leaving this corrupt Federation, you work for them. And regularly no less! What's changed since then? Better pay to do the same thing? Such the improvement."  
"What's changed is that can make my own rules now. If I don't like a mission, I don't do it. And from working with me for years, the Feds know what missions I'll refuse. So they don't ask. They know I turn down missions involving civilian casualties. They know I won't just do something because they asked me to or because they pay me to. I've shown them my standards. They respect that I'm not their pet murderer anymore."  
Adam stared at her for a moment, looking her right in the eye. He muttered a curse.  
"I lost so many," he mumbled, "I lost so many men that day Samus." He slammed his fist into the wall, "You have no idea what it's like to be in charge of a platoon. Every single person in that squad, I was responsible for. _Every one last one._ And when one of them died, I was alone at fault. I've been haunted, Samus. Haunted by the images of my men, brutally shot, never to return to the arms of their waiting wives. I see their fatherless children, asking every morning "when's Daddy getting home? When's Daddy coming back?". I picture myself at every one of their homes, telling their family the bad news. Then I see then rise up like a wall of fire and scream at me, "YOU KILLED THEM! YOU MURDERED OUR LOVED ONES"  
He tried so hard to keep it together, but a tear slipped out.  
"I don't care what you've done Samus. I don't care how many planets you've destroyed, or how many Vanies you've killed or how many races you've saved from extinction, or what you did on the ground just now. You'll never know what it's like to lead men to their deaths. You think I'm a such great leader? Everyone else seems to think so. I hear all the time the "accomplishments of Adam Malkovich" and how everyone seems to think I'm some sort of living legend. "Adam," they ask, "what's it like being the hero at Crescal II" and, "what's it like putting down the Horus Insurrection", I'll tell you what's it like!  
I've sent three battalions of men to their deaths on Horus IV, that's three thousand men. I've commanded losing battles in four different campaigns against the Krikens and the Vanaralians. I ordered the slaughter of 18,000 civilians and soldiers on Crescal. I don't care what side they were on."  
Samus' stood listening with a blank stare. He jabbed his chest, cursing himself, "I gave the order. I was responsible. I caused the _Massacre at Crescal._ And just when I found one person in the entire universe who related to my pain just as much as I related to hers, I drove her as far away from me as I could."  
She turned off her power suit. Orange energy wrapped around her as it dissipated into nothingness. She started crying as she wrapped her arms around him. "I forgive you. It was an order you couldn't refuse."  
Tears were streaming down his face. He returned the hug.  
"I forgive you." She repeated.  
There was," she was cried with him, "never anyone who understood me as deeply as you. That's why it hurt when you did what you did. I felt like you didn't know me anymore"  
"…I….I didn't know what I did until it was too late…It was wrong. So wrong of me… And I have this burden to carry for the rest of my life. But…it's, karkit! It's just too heavy for me to bear."  
She squeezed so tight, "If you'll let me…I'll carry it with you."  
Adam nodded. "I missed you so much."  
"I missed you too."  
He looked like he was about to say something to her when his eyes went blank.  
_Oh gods above no._  
He grabbed her tightly and pressed his ice gun to her head.  
Powersuit on, an ice shot would do next to nothing. By removing it to embrace Adam, she had made herself completely vulnerable. It was exactly the opportunity Hannibal had been waiting for.  
But no bolt came out. The possessed Adam pulled the trigger rapidly, but not a shot came out.  
"What?" he asked.  
Samus was speechless. _What happened?_  
Adam threw chucked the useless weapon and pulled a combat knife on Samus, stabbing her in the ribs the Ridley clone broke earlier.  
She screamed in pain, pushed him away and knocked him to the floor. She shrieked as she tore the knife still lodged in her body and reengaged her powersuit.  
Adam swore and his eyes returned to normal.  
_This is no use, _said Hannibal, _he cannot kill you. I will have to try something else._  
Samus buckled to one knee. She may have returned to her armour, but the wound was still bleeding. Adam put her right arm over his shoulders and helped her up.  
"Why didn't that gun shoot?"  
"I emptied it while Hannibal was distracted controlling the Desbrachians. I was afraid he'd use me to shoot you when you were least expecting it."  
"But then you had nothing to defend yourself."  
"That's why the spider Hannibal sent got me."  
"You knew that. Why did-"  
"I knew you'd come back for me."  
Samus smirked.  
Adam made for the door "Let's get out of here. Quick"  
_You're. Not. Leaving.  
_Both hatches out of the room locked shut and shield doors engaged.  
Samus spun her weapon around the room. _Where is he? Is he sending more monsters?_ _Nothing was going to take Adam away from her._  
_Oh no Samus, _spoke Hannibal again, _it seems that no matter what creature I send at you, you manage to best. Not even a superior Ridley could end you. Not even my greatest creations, the Desbrachians. I'll face you myself._  
Through the glass observation windows, a gargantuan demon appeared. Octopus like? More like a freaking cycloptic squid! It had a bulbous shaped head and flaming red eye. It had 40 foot arms around its head.  
It must have been far away from Samus and the others since they first heard it, because now, up close, the thing spoke like a thunderclap in her head.  
_YOU RUINED MY JUDGEMENT OF HUMANTY! I'LL TEAR YOUR INSIDES APART!  
_He must have been too close to the station for the Federation ships in orbit to get a clear shot. They would have shot at him by now. Despite the excruciating pain she was in, she managed to stand on her own and grin defiantly back at it.  
"Come and get some you freak! Get back Adam!"  
Suddenly Hannibal's slit-eye turned white. The glass cracked as the room split was filled with a high-pitched piercing sound. Samus fell to the floor as the most horrific pain hit her ribs.  
_THIS IS HOW I MURDERED REINHARDT. IT'S PSYCHOPARALISIS. I CAN BEND THE BODY IN WAYS IT SHOULDN'T LIKE THIS.  
"AIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"  
OR I CAN BUILD UP PREASURE…  
_The pain transferred to the front of her skull and she buckled to the floor. Samus watched helplessly as her energy tanks disappeared before her eyes. One second they were full, the next her reserves had been injected and she was down to mere half.  
_TO POP YOU LIKE A BALLOON.  
_Without warning the windows retracted, exposing the room to the cold vacuum of space. Momentarily distracted and still wearing his airtight suit, Adam chucked his knife into Hannibal's psychic eye.  
The creature reeled in pain as it whipped its eye around, trying to dislodge the knife. It stared right at Adam, raised a tentacle and crushed him into the steel floor like a bug. Samus was she got pissed.  
_ Really pissed._  
She leapt onto one of his outstretched tentacles and ran up to its body. She punched the eye and sent it hurdling into the station floor, lodging it in a steel crater. She spun around and delivered a bone crunching drop kick to his eye.  
Hannibal squealed in pain, but she wasn't done. She charged a shot, put the wounded eye into a headlock and delivered a pointblank, plasma burst straight into the knife wound.  
She finally grabbed Hannibal and flung him straight out into space. Screeching as it did. Blue ribbons lanced through its body and ripped the thing to pieces. The Fed ships got their clear shot.  
It screamed its last, _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_


	21. 19 Sins and a Spider

12 hours of intense fighting later. She didn't die, but she got close to it. When her ship ran out of missiles and chain gun ammo, she resorted to auto pilot and used up every last super missile she had on available. When she needed more, she lured Desbrachians away from settled areas and power bombed them. When she still needed more, she threw overturned tanks at them. When out of missiles, she took rocket launchers from soldiers and shot them at the monsters. When those ran out, she froze them with her ice beam and beat the freaks senseless with the launcher she happened to be holding. She helped coordinate airstrikes, and artillery bombardments from capital ships in orbit. 12 hours later and the most intense fight of her life was over.  
It had been years since she got to use her gunship in a firefight. Seldom she summoned her ship to dispatch her foes. She preferred to taste their blood spilt by her own hands, though today, it seemed she had little choice. Besides. Lives were on the line. Bloodlust mattered not. People mattered more than fun. And that was definitely not fun.  
She paid the Marines a wave goodbye, if it were not for them, she might have never won. They supplied her with all she needed. Their mortar strikes were instrumental in holding the Desbrachians off while she reloaded. She jumped back into her ship and contacted Admiral Dane, who reported the destruction of Duron V's engines.  
"Have you heard from Commander Malkovich?"  
"Negative. We're preparing a battalion to rescue him."  
"No need Admiral. I'll get him."  
"Aran, what are you thinking? You need rest and time to address your injuries. You'll kill yourself if yo-"  
"I'll med myself on the way. Save the men for their families, Admiral. I don't have anyone to return to unlike them."  
The Admiral laughed, "The galaxy does Aran. We'd rather have a person to pin that medal than a casket."  
"Also, form a perimeter around the station. Make sure nothing gets off unless it's in my ship. Not back in an hour, blow the thing to dust."  
"Roger Aran, I'll trust your expertise. Heh, as usual."  
A while later, Samus neared Duron's control bridge. The last place Adam was before contact was lost. Karkit! her ribs were killing her.  
_This is exactly the reason I didn't want you to stay. As soon I finished the Desbrachians, I knew Hannibal would hostage. I don't care if you had to do it, I should …I could. _She sighed deeply, _Why can't I be two ruttin' places at once!  
_The hatch opened. She was surprised to see Adam still in the room, though bound in a white wrapping with a giant spider standing over him.  
_Giant spider, nice touch._  
The beast hissed at Samus and shot two string shots at her. Samus sidestepped and cauterized its skull with a plasma bolt. The behemoth dropped to the floor, limbs twitching.  
She began uniting Adam out of his web binding.  
"Why did you leave?" Adam asked her.  
"Now or then?"  
"Then."  
"Because you asked me to do something asinine. Against everything I stood for."  
"It was a difficult situation," he retorted now free and standing beside her, "We all had to make tough decisions."  
"You asked me to slaughter civilians."  
"I needed you to follow my orders."  
Samus spun around to face him, "I needed you to respect who I was."  
"Any other soldier would have done it," Adam retorted, "I thought you were trained to follow orders."  
"Well forgive me for not for being a mindless dog for you. Forgive me for not being Siegfried willing to murder thousands at a moment's notice."  
"Those were my orders Samus, it's what needed to be done."  
"Needed to be done?" she countered, her tone laced in sarcasm, "You turned the planet into a sepulture! And just because a few pampered pigs in the Senate told you, too."  
"Samus they-look, I was in no position to rebel. I had five other officers on the bridge at the time I gave the order. If I didn't give it, they would have removed me from command and given it themselves. There was nothing I could have done."  
"Adam, you told me a long time ago, 'We all have our choices to make.' And that day you made yours and I made mine. And I didn't want to serve under a government that condoned planetary genocide just for a military outpost."  
Adam was perturbed, you could see it in his red face. "Okay Miss Aran," he fired back, then why after leaving this corrupt Federation, you work for them. And regularly no less! What's changed since then? Better pay to do the same thing? Such the improvement."  
"What's changed is that can make my own rules now. If I don't like a mission, I don't do it. And from working with me for years, the Feds know what missions I'll refuse. So they don't ask. They know I turn down missions involving civilian casualties. They know I won't just do something because they asked me to or because they pay me to. I've shown them my standards. They respect that I'm not their pet murderer anymore."  
Adam stared at her for a moment, looking her right in the eye. He muttered a curse.  
"I lost so many," he mumbled, "I lost so many men that day Samus." He slammed his fist into the wall, "You have no idea what it's like to be in charge of a platoon. Every single person in that squad, I was responsible for. _Every one last one._ And when one of them died, I was alone at fault. I've been haunted, Samus. Haunted by the images of my men, brutally shot, never to return to the arms of their waiting wives. I see their fatherless children, asking every morning "when's Daddy getting home? When's Daddy coming back?". I picture myself at every one of their homes, telling their family the bad news. Then I see then rise up like a wall of fire and scream at me, "YOU KILLED THEM! YOU MURDERED OUR LOVED ONES"  
He tried so hard to keep it together, but a tear slipped out.  
"I don't care what you've done Samus. I don't care how many planets you've destroyed, or how many Vanies you've killed or how many races you've saved from extinction, or what you did on the ground just now. You'll never know what it's like to lead men to their deaths. You think I'm a such great leader? Everyone else seems to think so. I hear all the time the "accomplishments of Adam Malkovich" and how everyone seems to think I'm some sort of living legend. "Adam," they ask, "what's it like being the hero at Crescal II" and, "what's it like putting down the Horus Insurrection", I'll tell you what's it like!  
I've sent three battalions of men to their deaths on Horus IV, that's three thousand men. I've commanded losing battles in four different campaigns against the Krikens and the Vanaralians. I ordered the slaughter of 18,000 civilians and soldiers on Crescal. I don't care what side they were on."  
Samus' stood listening with a blank stare. He jabbed his chest, cursing himself, "I gave the order. I was responsible. I caused the _Massacre at Crescal._ And just when I found one person in the entire universe who related to my pain just as much as I related to hers, I drove her as far away from me as I could."  
She turned off her power suit. Orange energy wrapped around her as it dissipated into nothingness. She started crying as she wrapped her arms around him. "I forgive you. It was an order you couldn't refuse."  
Tears were streaming down his face. He returned the hug.  
"I forgive you." She repeated.  
There was," she was cried with him, "never anyone who understood me as deeply as you. That's why it hurt when you did what you did. I felt like you didn't know me anymore"  
"…I….I didn't know what I did until it was too late…It was wrong. So wrong of me… And I have this burden to carry for the rest of my life. But…it's, karkit! It's just too heavy for me to bear."  
She squeezed so tight, "If you'll let me…I'll carry it with you."  
Adam nodded. "I missed you so much."  
"I missed you too."  
He looked like he was about to say something to her when his eyes went blank.  
_Oh gods above no._  
He grabbed her tightly and pressed his ice gun to her head.  
Powersuit on, an ice shot would do next to nothing. By removing it to embrace Adam, she had made herself completely vulnerable. It was exactly the opportunity Hannibal had been waiting for.  
But no bolt came out. The possessed Adam pulled the trigger rapidly, but not a shot came out.  
"What?" he asked.  
Samus was speechless. _What happened?_  
Adam threw chucked the useless weapon and pulled a combat knife on Samus, stabbing her in the ribs the Ridley clone broke earlier.  
She screamed in pain, pushed him away and knocked him to the floor. She shrieked as she tore the knife still lodged in her body and reengaged her powersuit.  
Adam swore and his eyes returned to normal.  
_This is no use, _said Hannibal, _he cannot kill you. I will have to try something else._  
Samus buckled to one knee. She may have returned to her armour, but the wound was still bleeding. Adam put her right arm over his shoulders and helped her up.  
"Why didn't that gun shoot?"  
"I emptied it while Hannibal was distracted controlling the Desbrachians. I was afraid he'd use me to shoot you when you were least expecting it."  
"But then you had nothing to defend yourself."  
"That's why the spider Hannibal sent got me."  
"You knew that. Why did-"  
"I knew you'd come back for me."  
Samus smirked.  
Adam made for the door "Let's get out of here. Quick"  
_You're. Not. Leaving.  
_Both hatches out of the room locked shut and shield doors engaged.  
Samus spun her weapon around the room. _Where is he? Is he sending more monsters?_ _Nothing was going to take Adam away from her._  
_Oh no Samus, _spoke Hannibal again, _it seems that no matter what creature I send at you, you manage to best. Not even a superior Ridley could end you. Not even my greatest creations, the Desbrachians. I'll face you myself._  
Through the glass observation windows, a gargantuan demon appeared. Octopus like? More like a freaking cycloptic squid! It had a bulbous shaped head and flaming red eye. It had 40 foot arms around its head.  
It must have been far away from Samus and the others since they first heard it, because now, up close, the thing spoke like a thunderclap in her head.  
_YOU RUINED MY JUDGEMENT OF HUMANTY! I'LL TEAR YOUR INSIDES APART!  
_He must have been too close to the station for the Federation ships in orbit to get a clear shot. They would have shot at him by now. Despite the excruciating pain she was in, she managed to stand on her own and grin defiantly back at it.  
"Come and get some you freak! Get back Adam!"  
Suddenly Hannibal's slit-eye turned white. The glass cracked as the room split was filled with a high-pitched piercing sound. Samus fell to the floor as the most horrific pain hit her ribs.  
_THIS IS HOW I MURDERED REINHARDT. IT'S PSYCHOPARALISIS. I CAN BEND THE BODY IN WAYS IT SHOULDN'T LIKE THIS.  
"AIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"  
OR I CAN BUILD UP PREASURE…  
_The pain transferred to the front of her skull and she buckled to the floor. Samus watched helplessly as her energy tanks disappeared before her eyes. One second they were full, the next her reserves had been injected and she was down to mere half.  
_TO POP YOU LIKE A BALLOON.  
_Without warning the windows retracted, exposing the room to the cold vacuum of space. Momentarily distracted and still wearing his airtight suit, Adam chucked his knife into Hannibal's psychic eye.  
The creature reeled in pain as it whipped its eye around, trying to dislodge the knife. It stared right at Adam, raised a tentacle and crushed him into the steel floor like a bug. Samus was she got pissed.  
_ Really pissed._  
She leapt onto one of his outstretched tentacles and ran up to its body. She punched the eye and sent it hurdling into the station floor, lodging it in a steel crater. She spun around and delivered a bone crunching drop kick to his eye.  
Hannibal squealed in pain, but she wasn't done. She charged a shot, put the wounded eye into a headlock and delivered a pointblank, plasma burst straight into the knife wound.  
She finally grabbed Hannibal and flung him straight out into space. Screeching as it did. Blue ribbons lanced through its body and ripped the thing to pieces. The Fed ships got their clear shot.  
It screamed its last, _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_


	22. 20 My Lady

20.  
Samus lifted Adam's broken frame out of the floor. His helmet was smashed and his armor broken beyond recognition. There she blew through the shield doors and rushed him to the hanger.  
"S…Sam..us."  
"I'm getting you out of here. Save your strength."  
"Too late…I'm… "  
"No! KARKIT! STAY WITH ME!"  
They were so close to the hanger.  
"Please. I- I'm done already…Let me…" he coughed blood on her suit, "spend these…last…moments. With you."  
Samus winced. _He was right._  
She set him down in her bed in her ship. He was right. Even advanced Chozo medicine she kept in her gunship couldn't save him. Nothing in the galaxy could stop that kind of bleeding enough to save him. She took off her helmet. He long blond hair fell on his chest.  
"I'm sorry. I didn't…I wasn't fast enough… I could have…"  
He coughed more blood. "Don't be. You…couldn't have," he smiled at her, the light in his eyes was fading fast. His words were strained. As if he didn't have enough air to say what he needed to say.  
He ripped off the dog tags from his neck and put them in her hand. She squeezed his hand so tight. She leaned inches away from his face. She could taste his bloodied breath.  
"I could…never…. save the galaxy…but…I s-saved you…You did…good…soldier….you tried…did good and that's all that mat…"  
"I love you." she told him.  
" I…love…you….my…lady."  
And his head went limp.


	23. Epilogue: My Other M

Epilogue

Adam Malkovich had been awarded the Federal Medal of Supreme Honour by the Chairman Richard Feldt. When Samus, wearing a black dress, stood to give his eulogy three days after his death, she looked over the huge crowd pack into the Earth Memorial Hall. There must have been 2,000 people attending.  
"Adam said to me as he died, 'You did good soldier. You tried your best and that's all that matters.' It was the stupidest simplest thing in the world. Out of everything he could have said, he chose that. I tried my best to save him, but I hated myself when I couldn't. I think he knew I'd feel that way. Maybe that's why he said it.  
Sometimes, you really can't save everybody, no matter how hard you try. I know this now. Adam traded death for my life that day. Despite all my objections and my insistence on doing everything myself, he was killed where I should have been. His sacrifice was for me. And for Earth.  
He was many things in his life, murderer, leader and friend to name a few. And while he carried many regrets over his choices, he was still the best friend I ever had. He helped make me who I was. If it we not for Adam Malkovich that day on Duron V, there would be no Samus Aran."  
Finished, she got off the stage and walked out. Someone replaced her on the stage. She didn't care. She left the hall and exited the building. She walked alone on the streets, trying to sort herself out. Eventually finding an overlook of an old part of the federation city. The sun was setting behind the clouds. She just couldn't believe he was gone. She didn't know what to do with herself.  
She winced, took a deep breath and imagined herself aside Adam's casket in a green field, sprawled across it were the words. _Commander. Comrade. Companion. Father._ She kissed her hand and pressed it on the word, _Father_. Not even once. And when she rose to leave alone, she took one last look at his casket. She winced again and she was back on the overlook.  
His words echoed in her mind, _Any objections lady?  
_She returned with a thumbs down and broke down into tears.  
"Adam," she whispered, "you were my other M."


End file.
